BUIES CREEK, N.C. – Third seeded Radford fended off No. 2 seed Campbell with five straight goals late in the second half, closing out a 15-14 win in the Big South Championship semifinals Friday at Barker-Lane Stadium.
Radford (6-11) moves on to Sunday's Big South Championship final, snapping Campbell's (8-7) four game winning streak.
The Highlanders led by as much as five goals in the first half, going ahead 7-2 on one of Ava Goeller's four opening frame goals, taking a 10-6 lead into the break.
Campbell responded with a five goal run to start the second half, including a pair of
Kyla Azzato scores, taking its first lead of the day on
Julianna Sanchez' free position goal at the 16:18 mark.
Radford tied it up 30 seconds later to spark the decisive 5-0 spurt that including two goals from Jennifer Shield and another pair from Goeller, who scored her sixth of the game with 4:09 to play to the Highlanders ahead 15-11.
Campbell clawed back with three more scores, including back to back goals from
Mackenzie Kolesar and
Sam Bischoff just 17 seconds apart cutting the lead to 15-14 with 1:24 to go in regulation, but Radford secured the ensuing draw control to advance.
Goeller led RU with a game-high six goals, while Shield tallied five points on four goals and an assist. Lindsey Carrol added two goals and two assists, while Katie Bendrick collected eight draw controls. Maddie Bowman anchored the defense with 13 saves and two ground balls.
Azzato scored a career-high four goals off the bench to lead CU, converting 3-of-4 free position tries, while Kolesar posted three points on two goals and an assist. Sanchez netted her sixth straight hat trick with three goals, adding six draw controls, and
Megan Matthews registered three points on a goal and two assists.
Chandler Stewart and
Lizzie Yurchak each caused three turnovers with Stewart adding three ground balls. Yurchak, meanwhile, tacked on an assist and an assist.