Box Score
WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Otterbein University women's lacrosse team tallied a memorable victory in its Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) opener Wednesday afternoon, striking a late rally to defeat Baldwin Wallace University, 14-13, at Clements Field.

The Cardinals faced a 13-9 deficit with under eight minutes to play, but scored five unanswered goals in the final 7:30 to improve to 9-3 on the season.

Baldwin Wallace (11-3, 1-1 OAC) took a marginal 7-5 lead into halftime, but the Cards stormed out with three-straight goals to begin the second period. The game saw a 9-9 tie before the Yellow Jackets opened the four-goal advantage, but Otterbein wasn't done just yet.

Sophomore Annie Kelly found freshman Maria Blaszczyk for a goal right at the 7:30 mark, and Kelly later assisted on two more goals down the stretch as Otterbein eventually drew even at 13-13.

The Cardinal defense forced a turnover with 90 seconds remaining before Kelly registered the game-winner, coming off an assist from freshman Maddy Blackburn, with 1:09 to play.

 "Winning the draw control was huge down the stretch, and I thought Annie finding Meg Burless for the equalizing goal out of the timeout was the key play," Otterbein head coach Stephani Schmidt said. "We gained the confidence from that point and just used that momentum to hang on. Everyone believed in one another from start to finish."

Junior Tory Blatt scored four times on the Otterbein side to lead all goal scorers while Kelly finished with three goals and game-highs of three assists, nine ground balls and 10 draw controls.

The story of the day, however, would be Otterbein senior goalie Rachel Snedegar, who came up with an impressive 14 saves in what was her first-career game. The Pickerington native, a four-year basketball letterwinner, joined the team last week after an injury to regular starter Karen Brady.

"She was awesome today," Schmidt said of Snedegar. " Rachel gave us exactly what we wanted her to, and probably a little more. She kept us in the game and made some key stops when under pressure."

Sierra Thomas and Victoria Budzyn each scored three times to pace BW, which also got seven assists from Katie Kocher. The Jackets, seeing their 10-game winning streak snapped, won just seven of the 28 draw controls and allowed the Cardinals to attempt 11 free-position shots. Otterbein went 4 of 11 while the Jackets missed all four of their opportunities.

Otterbein will return to action Saturday afternoon with a 1 p.m. home game against Capital University for Senior Day.