Senior Valerie Barnhart scored a game-high six goals in her final collegiate lacrosse game. Barnhart finished her career with 298 goals and 67 assists for 365 points.

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Colleen McDonald had five goals and Taylor White added four as fifth-ranked Bowdoin College earned a 16-9 win over 14th-ranked Stevens Institute of Technology in an NCAA Division III Women’s Lacrosse regional semifinal game held at Middlebury College’s Kohn Field on Saturday.

Stevens (15-3), making its first appearance in the NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championship, received a game-high six goals from senior midfielder Valerie Barnhart (Gilbertsville, Pa./Boyertown Area) in her final collegiate game.

Bowdoin (15-3) advances to Sunday’s regional final where it will face Middlebury, a 14-4 win over Nazareth.  Middlebury earned a 12-11 overtime win at Bowdoin earlier in the season.  The winner of the regional final earns a berth in next weekend’s Division III Final Four at The College of New Jersey in Ewing, N.J.

Colleen McDonald scored three goals in the game’s first 5:50 to give Bowdoin an early 3-1 lead.  Trailing 5-3, Stevens received a pair of goals from Barnhart to tie the game at five with 5:34 left in the first half.  Bowdoin then went on a four-goal run to take a 9-5 lead into the intermission.  White netted two of the goals, with three of the four tallies coming in the last 55 seconds of the half.

Stevens scored the first goal of the second half to pull within 9-6, but Bowdoin picked up where it left off and scored five of the next six goals to take a 15-7 lead with 11:53 remaining.  Five different players scored during the run, including the fifth of the game for McDonald.  Senior midfielder Kim Mirra (Aston, Pa./Sun Valley) ended the drought for Stevens at 10:34 to cut the lead to 15-8.  Bowdoin answered before Barnhart scored her game-high sixth goal of the game for the Ducks with 1:41 remaining.

Kendall Cox made 11 saves in goal to pick up the win.  Freshman Stephanie Linder (Eatontown, N.J./Monmouth Regional) made 16 saves in net for Stevens.

The game also marked the end of the careers of four Stevens seniors who have been the cornerstones of the women’s lacrosse program.  Barnhart, Mirra, Rebecca Quinn and Corina Kellner (Levittown, N.Y./MacArthur) were four-year starters who helped Stevens to a 56-12 record from 2002 to 2005.  Barnhart (298 goals, 67 assists, 365 points), Mirra (106-90-196) and Quinn (133-55-188) rank 1-2-3 on the school’s career points list.  Kellner anchored a defense that has ranked among the national leaders over the past four years.

SCORING:

Bowdoin Scoring: Colleen McDonald 5-2, Taylor White 4-0,

Taryn King 1-1, Brooke Nentwig 1-0, Bridget Keating 1-0,

Courtney Welch 1-0, Jena David 1-0, Bobbi Dennison 1-0,

Grace Moore 1-0.

Stevens Scoring: Valerie Barnhart 6-0, Kim Mirra 1-1,

Rebecca Quinn 1-1, Theresa Dolan 1-0.

GOALKEEPING:

Bowdoin:  Kendall Cox (60 min., 9 GA, 11 saves) 

Stevens:  Stephanie Linder (60 min., 16 GA, 16 saves)