PITTSBURGH - Chatham Women's Lacrosse (10-7, 6-3) won their first ever playoff game with a 9-8 win over the Thiel Tomcats (9-7, 5-4) on Tuesday at UPMC Graham Field. The win also tied the program record of 10 wins on the season.

Senior Felicia Hutter led the Cougars with five points on four goals and an assist, including the game-winning goal. Junior Erin Goodwin scored two goals on free-position shots and tallied seven draw controls. Junior Sam Beall-Dennell had a goal with eight draw controls, three ground balls and a caused turnover. Graduate student Bailey Donofrio and sophomore Dani MacConnell also scored goals. Senior Avery Redd, who won PAC Defensive Player of the Week after last week's stellar performance against Thiel, collected nine ground balls and caused two turnovers. First year Meghan Cuza-Berry made seven saves.

The Cougars jumped out in front just 26 seconds into the match thanks to a goal from Hutter. Then, at 10:31, Hutter assisted on a goal from Donofrio to give Chatham a 2-0 lead, but Thiel answered one minute later to make it 2-1. After a scoreless stretch in the middle of the first quarter, the Cougars exploded for three goals in the final 2:15, with two more scores from Hutter, to make it 5-1.

The Tomcats scored the first goal of the second quarter, on a free-position shot, but it was the only goal of the period for the away side. The Cougars matched when Goodwin netted a free-position goal of her own at 10:07, which marked the last score of the period. Cuza-Berry made two saves, including one on a free-position attempt, in the last 8:07 of the quarter to keep Thiel at a distance.

In the third quarter, the Tomcats cut the lead to 6-3 early on and then scored again at 5:57 to make it 6-4. The Cougars temporarily held off the comeback push with two free-position goals from Goodwin and MacConnell, but the Tomcats came storming back. They scored late in the third quarter and then three more times to start the fourth to tie the game at eight. Then, with four minutes left, Hutter scored her fourth of the day on a free-position shot to give Chatham the 9-8 lead. Cuza-Berry turned away a shot down the stretch and the Cougars were able to run out the clock to secure the victory.

Chatham led in shots 39-20 and dominated on draw controls 17-4. Both teams got a majority of their scoring from free-position shots as the Cougars were 6-13 on attempts from the arc and the Tomcats were 5-8.

The Cougars will advance to the PAC Semifinal to play the one-seed W&J Presidents on Thursday night at 7 p.m. in Washington.