The Riverhawks women’s lacrosse team are National Junior College Athletic Association district champions as they beat the Harford Fighting Owls 25-11 on May 4. 

Both teams will advance to the NJCAA national championship from May 13-14 at Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York. If the Riverhawks win at nationals, it’ll be their first title since 2007, when the team went 19-0 in the regular season, which included playoff games.

Head coach Jim Griffiths said this game was “a little bit of a wake up call, we got down 3-0 to start the game, I think the last two times we played them it was like 18-4 or 19-4 and all of a sudden we’re down 3-0, three minutes into the game.”

Midfielder Julia Sokolowski, a first-year transfer studies student, scored 11 goals in the game. Midfielder Lyndsey Miller scored eight goals and had five assists. Goalie Kaitlyn Evans stopped 12 out of 23 shots. 

For the Fighting Owls, defender Madison Dawson scored four goals and had one assist. The Fighting Owls had three assists compared to the Riverhawks nine. 

Fighting Owls head coach Dara Woizesko said they are “kind of the underdogs, so we have nothing to lose going into [nationals].”

“Most of our team actually didn’t play lacrosse before this year,” Woizesko said. “The majority of them were actually soccer players who came to help us fill out our roster to make sure we had a team. So I just hope that everyone continues to grow in their skills.”

Even though the Fighting Owls haven’t won a game this year, Miller, a first-year business student, said the Riverhawks won’t take their foot off the brake when they play them again on Saturday.

“I think we just need to come in without any expectations of how the game is going to go,” Miller said. “And come in focus and like we need to play like we’re playing them for the first time.”

Sokolowski said the Riverhawks’ run in the playoffs so far has been exciting.

“Everyone’s playing really well together this year and we just want to win,” Sokolowski said. “I’m looking forward to playing everyone and going to Niagara Falls when we get there.”