Salisbury vs. Hamilton Box Score | Adelphi vs. West Chester Box Score | Photo Gallery (Ryan Murray)

GETTYSBURG, Pa. – Gettysburg College's Clark Field played host to a pair of firsts in women's lacrosse as Salisbury University captured its first NCAA Division III Championship with a thrilling 7-6 win over Hamilton College followed by Adelphi University becoming the first Division II team to repeat as national champ with a 17-7 win over West Chester University on Sunday.

The final day of the 2010 NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championships began with an epic confrontation between the top two teams in the nation. No. 1 Hamilton College (21-1) came in vying for its second national title and a perfect season, while second-ranked Salisbury (21-1) looked to finally break through to the title after finishing runner-up three times in the previous five seasons.

After taking down defending champion Franklin & Marshall College the previous day, Hamilton, the 2008 champ, established an early tone as senior goalie Kate Fowler stopped each of Salisbury's first three shots on goal. In the meantime, the Continental offense revved up with a trio of goals as Anne Graveley started the scoring with a free position goal at 27:47 and Liz Rave went back-to-back at 20:18 and 18:52, the latter coming on the eighth shot of the possession.

The Sea Gulls picked up their first score when Carrie Bray scored off a free-position shot at 17:59, but Hamilton maintained the three-goal advantage as Kate Otley scored at 11:17.

After coming up nearly empty against the Continental defense for 20 minutes, the Sea Gulls fired off a flurry of shots on goal over the final third of the period. Fowler managed three saves against the pressure, but two attempts found the back of the net to pull Salisbury to 4-3 at the break.

It took only a minute into the final half for Salisbury to tie the game on a goal by Kim Cudmore. Hamilton answered right back to retain the advantage on a score by Libby Schultz at 27:33. The one-goal difference held true for five more minutes as the teams again traded goals.

The Sea Gulls tied the game for the third time in the period on a goal by Allie Wheatley courtesy of Beth Rhodey at 17:42. So began the war of attrition as the defenses buckled down and the opposing goalies combined for eight saves of the next 12 minutes, the last by Salisbury's Julie Ann Caulfield on a free position attempt by Hamilton's Sarah Bray, sister of Salisbury's Carrie Bray, at the seven-minute mark.

Salisbury took its first lead of the day with just under five and a half minutes to go as Rhodey dumped the ball in front of the cage to Aileen McCausland who rocketed a shot past Fowler to set the score at 7-6.

Hamilton won the ensuing draw control, but turned the ball over and the Sea Gulls put on the stall, burning nearly three minutes off the clock. The Continentals kept up the pressure and managed to force a turnover with under a minute to play. After calling a timeout, the squad put up a pair of quick shots, the second saved by Caulfield. A third shot was taken and made by Schultz, but the officials determined the attempt did not get off before the final buzzer.

McCausland was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player and was joined on the All-Tournament Team by Chmielewski, Wheatley, Rhodey, and Caulfield. Chmielewski and Rhodey each dished out two assists, the former adding a goal, while Logan Bilderback tacked on two goals. Caulfield stopped eight shots to earn the victory.

Hamilton received three goals from Rave and 14 saves from Fowler. Sarah Bray finished with three ground balls, three draw controls, and two caused turnovers. All three were named All-Tournament.

Joining the Salisbury and Hamilton players on the DIII All-Tournament team were Gettysburg College's Hollis Stahl and Hannah Church and Franklin & Marshall's Blake Hargest and Sarah Veneski.

In the Division II championship, Adelphi (19-1) broke an early two-all tie with an eight-goal run spanning the first and second halves and held off West Chester (19-2) down the stretch to earn its record fourth national championship.

The teams traded a pair of goals to start with the Rams' Lauren Glassey tying the game on a free-position shot at 17:47. That would be West Chester's last goal for 18 minutes as the Panthers hit the net for eight goals, beginning with a Marissa Mills free-position goal at 17:30 of the first period and ending with an Erica Devito score at 23:32 of the second half. Mills, Devito, and Kaitlyn Carter each tallied a pair of goals during the run, which propelled the defending champs to a 10-2 lead.

Perhaps no team showed as much adversity in the 2010 women's lacrosse championships than West Chester. The Golden Rams trailed by five to rival Lock Haven University in Saturday's semifinals before mounting a dramatic comeback for an overtime win. The squad began the rally 29 seconds after Adelphi's 10th goal when Erin Oczkowski struck for the first of four second-half free-position goals by West Chester. Claire Grimwood followed up with a free-position score before Mills tossed in her third goal of the game that made it 11-4 at 17:43.

The Rams jumped back on the horse with three more goals as Glassey put home two sandwiched around a tally by Grimwood that sliced the deficit to 11-7 with 14:27 to play.

That would be the slimmest margin of the final period with West Chester striking out on its final seven shot attempts, including two that hit the post and three more that were stopped by Panther goalie Caitlin Fitzpatrick.

Adelphi, meanwhile, countered with goals on six of its next nine shots to finish with the 10-goal win.

Despite the disparity on the board, most of the other stat categories were fairly even. The teams both corralled 20 ground balls and Adelphi held a slim 28-27 lead in shots. West Chester did win the battle off the draw with 17-of-25 draw controls.

Devito led the Panthers with six points on five goals and one assist. Carter posted five goals and Mills and tournament Most Outstanding Player Elizabeth Fey each tallied three goals. Joining that trio on the All-Tournament team were Holly Burke and Fitzpatrick, who finished with a game-high 14 saves.

West Chester finished as the national runner-up for the sixth time since Division II started holding a tournament in 2001. Glassey and Oczkowski each copped All-Tournament accolades after netting three and two goals, respectively, for West Chester. Grimwood added a pair of goals and was also named All-Tournament, while Katy Crouse posted five draw controls and seven caused turnovers.

Also named to the Division II All-Tournament Team were Kira Nuttall and Katie Zichelli of Lock Haven and Brianne Jackolski and Chelsea Donaldson of C.W. Post.