Erie, Pa. – The No. 3 Mercyhurst College women's hockey team is Boston bound! The third-seeded Lakers punched their ticket for the 2009 NCAA Division I Women's Frozen Four with a 3-1 victory over St. Lawrence in the NCAA Quarterfinals Saturday afternoon at the Mercyhurst Ice Center. The Lakers will take on No. 2 Minnesota in the NCAA Semifinals Friday evening in Boston, Mass.

Mercyhurst (30-5-0) sealed its first-ever NCAA win in convincing fashion, outshooting the Saints, 44-13, and holding them to just a single score. However, that score was the first of the game and put the Lakers behind 1-0 for nearly 20 minutes.

Lisa Batchelor put St. Lawrence out in front less than four minutes into the contest. After winning a faceoff in the Mercyhurst zone, Kirsten Roach fired a shot at freshman Hillary Pattenden, who made the save but lost the puck behind the net. Vanessa Edmond recovered it and and fed it out in front to Batchelor for the backhander at 3:43.

With the lead, the Saints relied on goaltender Brittony Chartier to keep it intact. Chartier stifled the Lakers by stopping all 15 shots in the first period.

Despite the solid performance, Mercyhurst broke down the Saints' netminder in the second, scoring twice on 20 shots to take a 2-1 advantage.

Freshman Kelley Steadman knotted the game at one early in the stanza. On a fastbreak, freshman Bailey Bram sent a pass up ice to sophomore Vicki Bendus who found Steadman cutting in the slot for the wide-open score at 2:15. It was her 13th marker of the season and third in the past three games.

Junior captain Meghan Agosta provided the Lakers with their first lead of the game nearing the end of period. Mercyhurst converted its first power-play in four attempts when Agosta took a feed from sophomore Geena Prough and ripped it past Chartier near post for the eventual game-winner with 5:25 remaining. Senior assistant captain Valerie Chouinard earned the secondary assist on the play.

Mercyhurst sealed the game with an insurance goal early in the third period. Freshman Jess Jones picked up her 16th goal of the season when her cross-crease pass from the left side of the cage deflected off a St. Lawrence defenseman into the net at 3:35.

Pattenden improved her season record to 23-2-0 with 12 saves over 60 minutes. Chartier made 41 stops over the span of 55:48, sitting the majority of the final minutes as the Saints attempted to tie the game with an extra-attacker on the ice.

On specials teams, Mercyhurst finished game 1-for-5 while St. Lawrence was 0-for-3.

Notes: Mercyhurst finished their home slate 17-0-0...The Lakers have won 16 straight games and 27 of their last 28…Agosta's goal marked her 22nd in the last 11 games. It also extended her goal-streak to 11 games and her point-streak to 15…Chouinard now has a point in 20 straight appearances…Steadman scored her fourth point in the past three games…Prior to this season, Mercyhurst was 2-12-2 against St. Lawrence.