Box Score GREENVILLE, Pa. - Led by four-point performances from Emily Harrigan (West Hartford, Conn./Hall) and Beth Snider (Pittsburgh, Pa./Shaler Area), the Thiel College women's lacrosse team claimed the 2013 Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) Championship on Saturday afternoon at Alumni Stadium with a 15-13 win over Saint Vincent College.
 
The win marked the first PAC championship for Thiel, in any sport, this season.  
 
Saturday's win was also the ninth win in the past 10 games for the Tomcats, who improved to 11-7 with the win. The loss dropped the Bearcats to 11-5 overall.
 
Harrigan, Snider and Cassy Mahdi (Odenton, Md./Arundel) each had three goals, with both Snider and Harrigan registering an assist. Kelley Bellia (Beaver Falls, Pa./Blackhawk) added two goals, while Jenna Simanovsky (Plainsboro, N.J./West Windsor-Plainsboro North), Hannah Stelmach (Reading, Pa./Governor Mifflin), Amanda Baur (Palmyra, N.J./Palmyra) and Sharr Martin (San Diego, Calif./The Preuss School UCSD) added a goal each.
 
The game was close throughout, as the first half featured three ties and four lead changes. The Bearcats got on the scoreboard first, scoring a pair of goals in the first three minutes of the game to take a 2-0 lead. The Tomcats answered with three straight goals, as Harrigan, Mahdi and Snider each scored to give Thiel its first lead of the contest, 3-2.
 
Saint Vincent answered, as Nora Posival led the Bearcat offense, picking apart Thiel's defense over a methodical eight minutes and 20 seconds in which St. Vincent scored back-to-back goals assisted by Posival to retake the lead, 4-3, with 15 minutes to play in the first half. The Tomcats responded quickly, scoring four goals in a four-minute span, with Snider's unassisted tally at the 9:21 mark giving Thiel a 7-4 lead. Each team scored three goals a piece from that point forward, as the Tomcats led 10-7 at the half.
 
The Tomcats scored the first goal of the second half, as Amanda Baur (Palmyra, N.J./Palmyra) scooped a loose ball past the Saint Vincent goalie to put the Tomcats up by four with 28 minutes to play. The Bearcats continued to answer in bunches, as they scored three-straight goals over a nine-minute span to trim Thiel's lead to 11-10 with 18 minutes to play. The two sides traded goals from that point forward, as a Kaley Burhardt goal with 3:15 left in regulation cut the Bearcat deficit to one, 14-13.
 
Mahdi drove the figurative nail through Saint Vincent's coffin, as her goal with just 11 seconds to play cemented the win for Thiel.
 
“I could not be more proud than I am today with this group of young women. They have all worked hard from the beginning of fall ball to today. We had three goals this season - to have a winning record, and to both host and win the PAC Championship, and we did all three as a second-year program,” said Thiel head coach Kati Robbins.
 
Robbins went on to say, “St. Vincent is a great team and played just as hard. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for Thiel lacrosse. Today was a great way to send senior Alison Lange (Poland, Ohio/Poland Seminary) off.”