SALISBURY, Md. - The top-ranked Salisbury University women's lacrosse team will make a return trip to the NCAA Division III final four as the Sea Gulls won their regional final, 18-7, over No. 15 Catholic University of America on Sunday afternoon at Sea Gull Stadium. The victory sets a new single-season record for wins in a season for Salisbury with 22, which is the longest winning streak in the nation.

Salisbury (22-0) will make its fifth appearance in the NCAA semifinal round next Saturday, May 17, at Donald J. Kerr Stadium in Salem, Va. The Sea Gulls will face No. 4 Hamilton College (19-1) who defeated No. 7 Middlebury College, 9-7, in another regional final. Salisbury and Hamilton will play at 11:30 a.m. The winner will advance to Sunday's championship game and face the winner of the other semifinal between defending national champion and third-ranked Franklin & Marshall College and No. 2 The College of New Jersey.

All four regional hosts won their respective regionals on Sunday. The past three national championships have been won by F&M (2007) and TCNJ (2006, '05). The Lions have won 12 national titles.

The road to the final four has been paved by senior Sue Ackermann, as she had another record-breaking game, with an eight-point against the Cardinals in the regional final. Ackermann's three goals and game-high five assists allowed the attacker to break two SU school career records.

She moved past former SU standout Christine Sliger (1992-2002) for the career lead in assists (147 was the record) while she finally surpassed Jen Mezzadra (1998-2001) on the career list for points (315 was the record). Ackermann now has 170 goals, 148 assists and 318 points in her four-year career as a Sea Gull.

This is the third straight game that Ackermann has tied or broken a SU women's lacrosse record. Her sights can now turn to a national record as she is now five points shy of the NCAA Division III single-season point's record of 154 currently held by Courtney Crangi of Goucher set in 1996. For the season, Ackermann has scored 80 goals, 69 assists for 149 points.

"I don't like it when people bring it [records] up because it is not important," said Ackermann. "If we come out and win it doesn't matter who is doing the scoring."

The first half was tightly contested as Catholic only found itself trailing 7-5 with 37 seconds left to play. Cardinal star Kate Robinson (three goals) fired a shot at the SU net that strayed wide and was scooped up by Salisbury defender Kelly Phillips. The senior passed the ball ahead into the offensive zone when with 14 seconds left to play Jessica Chmielewski (two goals, one assist) took the Courtney Sorenson (one goal, two assists) pass and scored to put SU up, 8-5, at the half.

"It felt too close for comfort," said Ackermann about the halftime score. "We knew we were better than how we played in the first half. Catholic played well and they came out strong and played really strong and aggressive. It was good practice for us going into the final four."

The last second first half goal proved to be crucial for Salisbury as they came out of the break on fire.

The Sea Gulls broke loose in the second half as they scored the first seven goals en route to the 11-goal win. Ackermann and sophomore Beth Rhodey (five goals, one assist) each scored a pair of goals in the stretch to give Salisbury some breathing room. SU outscored Catholic 10-2 in the second half.

"I don't think Catholic let down as much as every time we had the ball there was two or three players on us at all times. We just really stepped up and took control of the game," said SU sophomore Kim Cudmore on the second half.

The Sea Gulls jumped out to a 5-0 lead over the Cardinals, highlighted by Cudmore's (four goals, two assists) goal nine minutes into the match. The attacker showed great defense in a sequence where she  stripped the ball from Cardinal goalie Melissa Brashear, 15 feet in front of the goal, scooped up the ground ball and scored an empty net goal that put SU up 3-0.

Catholic rallied in the first half as they rattled off three consecutive goals in less than two minutes to narrow the score, 5-3.

"They came back on their opponent yesterday," said SU coach Jim Nestor of the Cardinal rally. "It never helps when you give the ball back to them."

Salisbury turned the ball over 18 times to Catholic. The Cardinals won 17-of-27 draws while the Sea Gulls outshot them 37-22. SU was 18-for-23 on clears while CUA only made eight of 19 clears. The Sea Gulls scored two free-position goals.

The tide turned back into the Gulls' favor as senior Jessica Liston (one goal) made an extraordinary play to prevent the ball from rolling out of bounds into the Catholic bench area. Liston dove at the ball and slapped it to junior Robyn Bishop who advanced the ball to a waiting Ackermann who swept around the Cardinal crease and scored to double up CUA, 6-3.

Ackermann, Liston, Alexis Morrell, Phillips and Allison Sofranko all competed in their final games at home, as the graduating seniors went 46-1 at home from 2005-08. All five players made the trip to last season's final four and are excited about the return.

"We are looking forward to it. The final four is fun," said Ackermann. "This was the last game on this field for the seniors. It is a weird feeling but I am glad we ended with a win."

SU goalie Sonja Stuart made eight saves in 53 minutes as Natalie Pappas (one save) closed out the game for the maroon and gold.

The NCAA tournament is new territory for the Cardinals as the former Capital Athletic Conference members won the Landmark Conference in 2008. Catholic went 2-1 in its first NCAA appearance.

"This was our first time," said Catholic coach Meghan O'Connor McDonogh. "Salisbury has a number of amazing players and they have been in this position before."

In only her third tournament game sophomore Brashear (13 saves) was outstanding as she stopped nine Sea Gull shots from getting by her. In a crucial seven-minute stretch in the first half Brashear stopped four Sea Gull shots to give the Cardinals the opportunity to remain close with SU.

"We came out of that timeout down 5-0 and rattled off three straight against the No. 1 team in the country. We showed so much character," said O'Connor McDonogh.