Misenheimer, N.C. – North Greenville overcame a second half deficit, scoring five goals in the final 10-minutes of action to earn the program’s first ever playoff win, an 11-8 victory over the Pfeiffer Falcons.

The win over the Falcons is the first win over Pfeiffer in the three-year story of NGU women’s lacrosse, a series that includes three regular season matchups as well as a prior playoff meeting a year ago. The Crusaders fell to Pfeiffer 19-9 in the first round during the 2016 playoffs.

The Crusaders fell behind 2-0 early on but answered with five consecutive goals, two of which came from Madison Boudreau to take a 5-2 lead. The Falcons tacked on one more score before half to pull to within two of NGU.

The final first half score was one of five unanswered scores from the Falcons, which catapulted them to a 7-5 advantage. Boudreau’s third score of the game pulled North Greenville to within one but the Falcons tacked on another score to take an 8-6 lead with 15:42 left in the game.

The Crusaders faced the final 10-minutes of the season and responded brilliantly. Rachel Kellogg got things started with a goal that pulled North Greenville to within 8-7 of the Falcons. The equalizer came with 8:25 left on the clock when Emily Colson scored an unassisted goal that made it 8-8.

North Greenville then tacked on three more goals in the final seven minutes of the game, including two in less than 30-seconds as Boudreau, who also led the team in scoring, found Jillian Cheisa twice in a row to make the score 10-8. Hanna Hawkins added the final nail with a goal at the 4:26 mark, while NGU’s defense locked down the Falcons to secure the first round victory and a trip to the quarterfinals.

Rachel Kellogg evened Boudreau with team high three goals while Hawkins and Cheisa finished with two each. The Crusaders caused 10-turnovers including a team high three from Kaitlin Yenson. Sydney Taylor and Emily Colson cause two turnovers each. Colson and Cheisa led the team with three groundballs.

Sydney Taylor preserved the win with eight saves on the night.

The win over Pfeiffer advances the Crusaders to the semi-final game, scheduled to be played Saturday afternoon at 1pm. NGU will take on the #1 seeded Mount Olive Trojans in Pepsi Stadium on the campus of North Greenville University.