Box Score
GAMBIER, Ohio – Trailing 7-6 at halftime of Thursday's North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament semifinal game, the Kenyon College women's lacrosse team made the necessary changes, especially in the defensive zone, to shut down the visiting Denison University Big Red and rally for a 12-8 victory.

The win gives Kenyon a 12-2 record, extends the Ladies' win streak to eight games, and most importantly, pushes the Purple and White into the NCAC Tournament's championship game, which they will host at 5 p.m. Saturday. In that championship game, the Ladies will go up against The College of Wooster, the tournament's No. 4-seed that upended No. 1-seeded Wittenberg University, 14-13, in overtime of Thursday's other semifinal game. The winner of Saturday's championship game will receive the NCAC's automatic bid into the NCAA Division III Tournament.

Denison, winner of the last two NCAC Tournaments, ends its 2013 campaign with a 13-3 record. Two of those three losses were to Kenyon.

In the early stages of Thursday's game, it looked like the Ladies were going to cruise to victory. Denison notched the game's first goal, but Kenyon senior Leah Sack quickly countered. She assisted classmate Emily Nichols on two straight goals and then scored one herself. Ansen Burr fired in an unassisted goal and the Ladies ran out to a 4-1 lead with 23:36 left on the first-half clock.

The Big Red settled things down a bit and then went on a streak of their own. They scored six of the game's next eight goals to take a 7-6 lead into the break. Kenyon junior Amy Morgan did what she could to break up the Denison run by scoring twice in a six-minute span.

When the teams returned to the field for the second half, the Kenyon offense once again blitzed Denison with a four-goal flurry. Morgan netted her third goal of the game, Nichols tossed in two more, and Alex Bair scored at the 20:06 mark to give the Ladies a 10-7 advantage.

This time around, the Kenyon defense made that lead stand. Goalkeeper Meredith Bentsen made half-a-dozen second-half saves and paired up with a Ladies defense that allowed just one goal over the game's final 30 minutes.

Nichols ended up finishing with four goals, an assist, and a game-high five points for the Ladies. Sack matched that game-high point total with one goal and four assists. Morgan chipped in with three goals and Bair scored twice. At the other end of the field, Bentsen wound up making a total of eight saves.