MATTHEWS, N.C. – For the first time in program history, the Newberry College women's lacrosse team (13-5) has advanced to the South Atlantic Conference Tournament final with an 18-11 win over Lincoln Memorial (10-9) on Saturday afternoon at the Sportsplex in Matthews.

The Wolves will do battle with No. 1 seed Wingate in the final on Monday, May 1 at 2 p.m. at the Sportsplex.

Emma Jobs (Sherwood Park, Alberta), who scored the game-winner in overtime against Lenoir-Rhyne in the regular-season finale last week, led the Wolves with five goals against LMU.

Cassell Richardson (Forest, Va.) had three goals, and Jenny Bates (Sherwood Park, Alberta), Hanna Bond (Falls Church, Va.), Serena Elias (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) and Ella Todd (Maple Ridge, Canada) each had two. Lana Howell (Aurora, Colo.) and Marissa Plumer (Kent Island, Md.) scored one apiece.

Setting the tone for the afternoon, Jobs started the Wolves off with a quick unassisted goal 30 seconds into the contest. She added another two minutes later when Richardson found her free.

The Railsplitters cut their early 2-0 deficit in half with a goal at the 9:38 mark of the first quarter before a five-minute scoreless spell for both sides. That was broken by a woman-up goal from Bates who took advantage of an LMU yellow card to put the Wolves back up by a pair.

Three more Newberry goals over the next 1:30 from Elias, Todd and Plumer – the latter two from the free position – gave the Wolves a commanding 6-1 advantage with 2:36 on the clock in the first. A pair of Lincoln Memorial goals before the end of the quarter made it 6-3 Wolves after one.

Richardson pushed the Newberry lead back to four less than a minute into the second quarter, soon followed by another from Jobs who completed her hat trick with 13:15 still to play in the first half.

Bond scored her first of the game from the free position two minutes later to give the Wolves a 9-3 lead. Howell scored her lone goal halfway through the second to give the Wolves their largest lead of the day to that point, 10-3.

An unassisted Railsplitter goal with 4:48 left in the half made it 10-4 before Todd and Bond tacked on two more to make it 12-4 Newberry after 30 minutes.

Jobs scored goal No. 4 to open the second half, extending the Newberry lead to nine. The Railsplitters got a pair back over the next four minutes before Jobs scored her fifth and final goal to make it 14-6 halfway through the third.

Elias scored for the second time on a rare woman-down goal off a feed from Richardson to bring the lead back to nine – Richardson led the team with three assists and tied Jobs with a team-high six points.

LMU was able to take advantage of a Wolves yellow card before the end of the quarter to make it 15-7 going into the last. After the Railsplitters scored again, Richardson scored an unassisted goal and soon became the facilitator, finding Bates for a goal to make it 17-8 with 9:36 left in the game.

Richardson rounded out the scoring for the Wolves with a woman-up goal from the free position with 6:46 remaining following an LMU goal. The Railsplitters scored twice to close the scoring, but it wasn't enough as the Wolves triumphed 18-11.

On the game, Newberry won the draw control battle 18-15 – Madison Miller (Ponte Vedra, Fla.) had an astounding 14 of those, which is both a career-high and program record for a single game.

Plumer likewise reached a milestone with her caused turnover as she set a new program record for the most caused turnovers in a career (95).

The Wolves will look for the program's first SAC Tournament title on Monday, with game time set for 2 p.m. against Wingate.