It was the first ever MAC Tournament after the conference began sponsoring women's lacrosse in 2021. Robert Morris won the crown a year ago when there was no league tournament.
 
CMU, Robert Morris and Youngstown State shared the regular season crown in 2022, but there was no question as to which program reigned supreme on Saturday.
 
The Chippewas (12-7) will learn their first-round NCAA Tournament opponent and destination on Sunday night during the tourney selection show. And while they'll look ahead to that, they can look back now on a program that launched in 2016 and all the labor and dreams that culminated in Saturday's win.
 
Brennan Paddy, Kelly Hoyt and Kendall Hoyt scored five goals apiece, while Maggie Diebold added four. CMU's Audrey Whiteside, the MAC Offensive Player of the Year, finished with four assists after drawing much of the attention from the RMU defense, which had allowed the fewest number of goals among MAC teams during the regular season.
 
CMU trailed, 7-5, with six minutes remaining in the first half. Diebold and Paddy scored to tie it, 7-7, before the break. And then Paddy scored the first two goals of the second half to make it 9-7, swinging momentum firmly to the Chippewas.
 
CMU outscored the Colonials, 8-1, in the third quarter as part of an 11-1 spurt that gave them complete control.
 
Paddy's five-goal performance tied her career high.
 
Chippewa goalie Erin Owens tied her career high with 16 saves – two shy of the program record – in outperforming RMU's Jamie Keller, who earlier in the week was named the MAC Goalie of the Year.
 
Potter earned the tournament Most Valuable Player Award and was named to the all-tournament team along with Kelly Hoyt, Paddy, Owens and Courtney Burke.