ROCHESTER, NY- The Utica College women's lacrosse team had its historic season come to an end Saturday as it fell to No. 3 seed Stevens Institute of Technology 11-6 in the semifinal of the Empire 8 Conference Tournament.  This marks the second year in a row that the Ducks have defeated the Pioneers in the E8 semifinal.
 
Utica, which earned the No. 2 seed in the tournament with a 6-2 conference mark, wraps up its season with a 13-4 overall record.  The Pioneers set a new program record for wins and conference wins in a season this year. 
 
The Ducks opened the scoring at 24:50 as junior Kyra Bednarski netted her first of the day.  The Pioneers evened it up at 18:41 when sophomore Lauren Wolff (Peabody, MA/Peabody) netted her 15^th of the year.  The Ducks responded with three straight to take a 4-1 lead with 11:32 left in the first half.  Emily Rossi (Verona, NY/Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) and Kaitlynn Palmer (Verona, NY/VVS) scored goals with a Stevens tally sandwiched between them to head into halftime with the Ducks leading 5-3. 
 
Stevens extended its lead with a pair of goals in the first 3:12 of the second half, but back-to-back scores by Palmer and Katlyn Scarpinella (South Setauket, NY/Ward Melville) made it 7-5 with 21:23 remaining.  That's as close as the Pioneers would make it as Stevens scored four of the final five goals in the game to clinch a spot in the championship game for the third straight year.
 
Palmer finished with three goals on the day to lead the way, while Scarpinella, Lexi Scaccia (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro), and Hailee DuMont (Wilkes-Barre, PA/James M. Coughlin) each had one assist.
 
Junior Hali Vandermeulen (Walden, NY/Valley Central) finished with 14 saves in the loss, marking her eighth outing this season with at least 10 saves. Vandermeulen set a new program record with 12 wins this season.  She is also the program's career leader with 27 wins under her belt.