TOWN AND COUNTRY – Maryville junior Helen Bae stepped to the eight-meter arc for a free position opportunity.
The Great Lakes Valley Conference Attacker of the Year, who had been held goal-less for more than 54 minutes, had a chance to give the Saints the lead late in the conference title game against four-time defending champion University of Indianapolis.
She would have preferred a different location.
“That hash is not my favorite hash. It’s a really hard hash for me to capitalize on because I overthink it,” Bae said. “But I thought, ‘Forget what I think about this hash, I have a job to do.’”
Bae scored the game-winning goal and the Maryville defense survived a frenetic finish as the Saints captured their first conference championship in program history with a 10-9 victory over UIndy Sunday at Maryville Athletic Complex.
Maryville (18-1), which won its 18th consecutive game, earned the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region of the NCAA Division II playoffs.
The Saints will host the winner of Grand Valley State (15-3) and Rockhurst (13-4) at 3 p.m. Saturday. UIndy (13-6), which earned the No. 2 seed in the Midwest, will host the winner of Regis (13-4) and Ashland (14-5), also at 3 p.m. Saturday.
Bae entered the championship game with 64 goals, and garnered the attention of physical UIndy defenders whenever she touched the ball. She drew a Greyhounds’ penalty 10 seconds into the game and scored as the penalty time expired, but found few avenues to shoot for the remainder of the contest.
“I did have a few mistakes where I tried to force it, but I trust my teammates. If I can’t put the ball in the back of the net, I know they can,” said Bae, a graduate of Pattonville High.
Those teammates included Lafayette High graduate Natalie Tomljenovic and Parkway South alum Kylie Pettis, who contributed two goals apiece to help the Saints enter the final five minutes tied at 9, before Bae finally found her moment.
The 5-foot-1 junior, who had been bruised and battered throughout the game, entered the mosh pit in front of the UIndy goal once again and earned a free position opportunity with 4:19 remaining.
“Our team has so much depth. I knew they would step up, and when it was my time to step up, I knew I needed to capitalize,” Bae said.
Bae overcame her hash-hostility and gave Maryville the lead, but it was just an appetizer of the physicality that was forthcoming. The Saints were sent to the penalty box three times over the final four minutes, at one point, having to kill off a 7-on-5 disadvantage.
“It definitely was nerve-wracking,” junior Marissa Zeno said. “When we got that second card, we looked at each other as a defensive unit and said, ‘This is do-or-die. We need to lock this down.’”
Maryville goalie Gianna Guzek’s five saves in crunch time included two brilliant stops on rockets from UIndy junior Olivia Bladon, who netted eight goals in the Greyhounds 12-9 victory over Rockhurst in the conference semifinal.
“If you can see it, you can save it. I just watched the ball, watched how the play developed and was able to track it and save it,” said Guzek, who made nine saves and was named Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) National Defensive Player of the Week.
Guzek made a pair of saves on UIndy free position opportunities in the final minutes and ended the game with the ball in her stick after stopping a bouncer at the buzzer.
“I was holding my breath,” Zeno said. “Thank God for Gianna Guzek, she is amazing.”
Dethroning four-time defending champion UIndy took mental toughness and resolve from Maryville, who had lost to the Greyhounds in the conference title game the previous two seasons. Last year, the Saints defeated UIndy in the regular season meeting only to have the Greyhounds dash their conference title hopes one week later.
“Last year, we really thought we had it. We went into (the championship game) anticipating a trophy, and to not get that was heartbreaking,” Bae said.
A similar storyline was playing out Sunday, as the Saints, which defeated UIndy 18-16 on April 13, found themselves trailing the Greyhounds 4-2 after the first quarter.
“We looked at the score and we knew we were better than that,” Zeno said. “We trusted our system and we trusted each other.”
UIndy passed up shots near the cage and bled the 90-second shot clock. The Greyhounds scored goals with four seconds and one second remaining on the shot clock and opened a 5-2 advantage midway through the second quarter.
“UIndy is such a good team. Their offense is really disciplined and they move the ball well. We just had to stick to our gameplan defensively and wait it out a little bit,” Maryville coach Melissa Gyllenborg said.
And Zeno led the Maryville offensive blitz that turned the tide. First, she found a cutting Tomljenovic to break a 13-minute scoring drought, then she fed a streaking Pettis. Her assist to Chloe Elliott tied the game.
“I trust my teammates. I see them cutting and I trust that, if I get the pass to them, they’re going to be able handle the pressure and finish the shot,” said Zeno, who finished with four assists.
Tomljenovic scored on a free position shot for the fifth Maryville goal in a 2:44 time span to give the Saints a 7-5 lead heading to halftime.
“Our mentality is to take each play one at a time and not look at the big picture too fast,” Gyllenborg said. “Even when we’re down early, it doesn’t mean much to us because the game is so long.”
UIndy trailed 9-7 entering the fourth quarter before Bladon and freshman Kendall Conrad tied the score at the 9:07 mark. But the Maryville defense, led by Eureka alum Haley Ritchie, kept the Greyhounds off the scoreboard for the remainder of the game despite the Saints being shorthanded for much of it.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been with a defense that has been more locked in. We worked together – one brain – and we had each other’s backs,” Ritchie said. “It’s such a great feeling to be able to lock down such a high-caliber team while being a man-down for minutes at a time. It’s empowering.”
And the win is an empowering achievement for Gyllenborg and the Saints, who took the next step in the ascension of the Maryville women’s lacrosse program.
“It’s exciting,” Gyllenborg said. “Carly (Shisler) and I came three years ago and this is the dream – to get on that national stage, win our conference and get further into the (Division II) playoffs.”
Bae added, “We had to dig deep and find that fire, and we found it. It’s monumental.”
See a full photo gallery from this game by clicking on the link below: