Seahawks earn final TCCC playoff spot, travel to No. 1 seed Endicott Saturday

NEWPORT, R.I. - The Salve Regina University women's lacrosse team has earned the eighth and final spot in the 2010 The Commonwealth Coast Conference (TCCC) playoffs and will begin play Saturday, May 2 when they travel to Beverly, Mass., to face top-seed Endicott College at 2 p.m.

The Seahawks (7-10, 4-7 TCCC) earned the final playoff spot by virtue of a 12-11 overtime win at Nichols College on Wednesday night. Freshman Kelly Burke (Georgetown, Mass.) (right) scored her sixth goal of the night with 27 seconds remaining in overtime to send the Seahawks to the playoffs for the first time since 2007.

Sitting at 1-7 in the conference with three TCCC games remaining, the Seahawks scored a 17-9 win over New England College on Saturday and a 23-1 win over Regis (Mass.) on Monday before sealing their playoff spot with a win last night.

Endicott, meanwhile, finished the 2010 regular season 13-4 overall and a perfect 11-0 against conference foes. The Gulls were the last team to defeat the Seahawks, dealing them a 21-9 loss in Beverly on April 21. In that contest, Kristen Micho, Morgan DeShaw and Kelly Tierney each scored four times for Endicott while junior Nicole Viola (Scarborough, Maine.) paced Salve Regina with three tallies.

Senior Sarah Baker (Summit, N.J.) led the Seahawks offensively this season, establishing a single-season school-record for points with 82, including a team-high 49 goals. Viola was second with 44 goals and 56 points while Burke was third with 40 tallies and 48 points. Freshman Danielle Malconian (Belmont, Mass.) led the team with 52 ground balls and 26 caused turnovers, and senior Erika Curtin (Huntington, N.Y.) led the team with 68 draw controls. In goal, sophomore Natalie Balletta (Leominster, Mass.) went 7-10 with a 13.63 goals against average (GAA) and a .369 save percentage.

In other TCCC playoff action this Saturday, No. 2 Roger Williams will host No. 7 Colby-Sawyer at 3 p.m., No. 3 University of New England will host No. 6 Gordon at 1 p.m., and No. 4 Western New England will host No. 5 Curry at 1 p.m.