Freshman Erin Misner scored 1:09 into the second overtime period to give the Arcadia University women’s lacrosse team an 8-7 victory over visiting FDU-Florham on April 26 at Easton Field, giving the Knights the 2014 Freedom Conference regular season title and the top-seed in the Freedom Conference Championship Tournament.

This marks Arcadia’s first-ever regular season title as a member of the Freedom/Middle Atlantic Conference, and is the Knights’ first time finishing atop the regular season standings since doing so in 1996 as a member of the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference.

Arcadia will host the Devils again Wednesday, April 30, at 4 p.m. at Easton Field. FDU, Misericordia, and Wilkes all finished 4-2 in the conference, were 1-1 against each other, and had identical records against the rest of the league. Wilkes was awarded the No. 2 seed based on goal differential between the three tied teams. Once the three-way tie was broken it fell to head-to-head results between FDU and Misericordia, giving the Cougars the No. 3 seed by virtue of their 13-12 win over the Devils April 2 at FDU.

The Knights held a narrow 6-5 lead after junior Haylee Molloy and senior Sara Volk-Perez both scored in a span of 41 seconds, but junior Caitlyn McGinley knotted the score at 6-6 with 2:46 remaining in regulation.

Arcadia was assessed a pair of yellow cards in the final minute and a half of regulation, giving FDU an excellent opportunity to take the lead. The Knights defense held and sophomore Jordyn Dunacusky came up with a huge save on a free position shot from freshman Noelle Shirey with less than 30 seconds to send the game to overtime.

The score remained tied until junior Courtney Rendinaro found the back of the net to give the Devils a 7-6 lead with 1:06 left in the first overtime period.

Shirey controlled the draw following the go-ahead goal, but junior Dana Roessler forced freshman Brienna Reasoner to turn the ball over and classmate Jaclyn Feffer picked up the ground ball with 11 seconds to go for the Knights. Arcadia was able to quickly advance the ball past midfield, and then head coach Erin Livingston called her timeout with seven seconds left on the clock to setup a play.

The ball immediately went to Molloy, who was fouled inside the scoring area with two seconds remaining. She was awarded a free position attempt because of the foul and cashed just before the clock hit all zeroes to tie the game at 7-7 and force a second overtime.

Volk-Perez won the draw control to start the second overtime period, which eventually led to Feffer feeding the ball to Misner in front of the net for the game-winning goal.

Misner and Volk-Perez finished with two goals and one assist each in the game, while Molloy also finished with a pair of goals. Junior Catherine Brown and sophomore Dawn Faranetta each added a goal.

Senior Jenna Crothers had a pair of assists in the game, making her the first-ever player at Arcadia to total 100 points in a single season. She now has 30 goals and a school-record 70 assists on the season, and raised her career-record assist total to 106.

Dunacusky improved to 16-0 for the season after making seven saves in net. The 16 wins by Arcadia (16-1 / 6-0 Freedom) and Dunacusky are both school records for victories in a single season. Senior Katie Bauer had three caused turnovers and picked up two ground balls in the game, raising her school record totals to 88 career caused turnovers and 191 career ground balls.

Reasoner and Rendinario had two goals each for the Devils (7-9 / 4-2 Freedom), while Shirey finished with one goal and one assist. Junior Grace Warburton finished with eight saves in net for FDU.

The Devils outshot the Knights 23-20 in the game; shots were even at three apiece in overtime. Arcadia had a 26-24 edge in ground balls and a 13-5 advantage on draw controls. Both teams had 31 turnovers in the game.