HARROGATE, Tenn. – After topping off their most successful regular season to date with a 13-12 overtime win at Coker Saturday afternoon, the LMU women's lacrosse team will make the program's first-ever postseason appearance as they travel to Catawba for a South Atlantic Conference Championship quarterfinal game Tuesday afternoon.

The team closed out the regular season with a thrilling winner-takes-all contest at Coker, where they held a three goal lead midway through the second half but saw the Cobras battle back to tie the game and force overtime. It was the first overtime game in LMU WLAX history. It is said that winning the draw is the key to winning the game in women's lacrosse, and LMU proved it as Zoe Zervos grabbed the draw out of the air, ran down the field and passed it to DePaul who took it in for the game winning goal 14 seconds into the overtime period.

With that win, LMU closed out the regular season with a program-best eight wins, a program-best three SAC wins, and a program-first SAC Championship berth.

Now the task for the Lady Railsplitters is to make another first happen and win on Tuesday at Catawba.

The Catawba Indians earned a three-seed to the tournament (LMU is sixth) on the back of a 10-7 regular season that saw them go 6-2 in SAC play. They clinched the three-seed with a hard-fought 13-11 win over Tusculum Saturday in Salisbury.

In their previous meeting this year, Catawba edged out LMU 12-9. In LMU's last appearance in Salisbury, the Lady Railsplitters had a 16-15 lead with less than 30 seconds remaining but were unable to stop Catawba's Nicolette Salay from scoring twice in 30 seconds and fell 17-16.

The Catawba Indians have a very balanced offensive attack, with five players having scored 30 or more points thus far this season. Gianna Pezzulo leads the way with 64 points (32 goals and 32 assists) on the season. Nicole Hunt is second with 52 points (30g 22a), followed by Erin Green with 48 (34g 14 a), Katie Barth with 41 (35g 6a) and Brooklyn Tilley's 36 (33g 3a).

Hunt leads the team in ground balls while Tilley has the most draws won with 36, though two other have 30+ draws won as well. Goalie Madison Anselmo has 138 saves and has given up 194 goals this season.

Catawba holds a 231-211 advantage over their opponents this season in goals scored, a 532-492 advantage in shots, and a 411-376 in ground balls. Their opponents hold a 246-215 advantage in draw controls, but have also turned the ball over 416 times to 370 by the Catawba Indians.

LMU also has a balanced offensive attack with four players having 40 or more points. Amara Moss leads the team with 56 points (48 goals, 8 assists) and 85 draws won. Casey Kelly is close behind with 53 points (36 goals, 17 assists) and 79 draws won. Kennedy Buechner has 50 points (38g 12 a) and Erin DePaul has 45 (38g 7a).

Zoe Zervos leads the team in caused turnovers (29) and ground balls (48). Goalie Shannon Novak has 120 saves and given up 138 goals.

LMU holds a 188-179 advantage over their opponents this season in goals scored, a 208-180 advantage in draw controls, and a 151-139 advantage in saves. Their opponents have out-shot them 427-416 and have the advantage in ground balls 332-292, but have also turned the ball over 292 times to 290 by the Lady Railsplitters.

The winner will advance to face second-seeded Queens in the semifinals Friday at 7:00 p.m. in Wingate, North Carolina.