ALLIANCE, Ohio — Mount Union weathered a couple lightning delays and rallies from Capital to win its third straight Ohio Athletic Conference Women's Lacrosse Tournament title, 10-6, Saturday night at Mount Union Stadium.

The Purple Raiders improve to 15-3 on the season and claim the conference's automatic bid to the 40-team NCAA Division III Women's Lacrosse Championship.

Capital, 12-5 overall after the loss, entered the week ranked No. 6 in the NCAA Mid-South rankings and will have to wait to see if it earns one of nine national at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament.

A stout Mount Union defense held a Capital team averaging over 12 goals a game to just six goals on the evening as junior goal keeper Nikki Bonaduce (Kennett Square, Pa./Unionville) led the way as she matched her season-high with 10 saves.

On offense, a balanced attack was led by four players -- Katherine Doraty (Medina/Medina), Taylor Pensyl (Kent/Kent Roosevelt), Kolbie Haines (Hudson/Hudson), and Marjie McNamara (Champlin, Minn./Champlin Park) -- each scoring two goals for the Raiders.

Regan Hanood had a goal and an assist to lead the Crusaders.

Mount Union took an early 3-0 in the game's opening 12 minutes on goals from McNamara, a man-up goal from Doraty and Pensyl.

Capital got back in the game with two goals in a span of 40 seconds -- one from Hanood and a free position shot from Victoria Husain to make it 3-2 with just under 16 minutes left in the first half.

A one hour lightning delay then came and less than four minutes after play resumed Haines scored an unassisted short-handed goal to put the Raiders up 4-2.

Capital scored two straight man-up goals to tie the game and Mount Union retook the lead 5-4 on a free position shot from Pensyl with 3:36 left in the half.

A little less than two minutes before halftime, a second lightning delay then took another 45 minutes and when the teams returned it was decided there would be no halftime but the Raiders led 5-4 after 30 minutes of play.

Mount Union then scored three goals over a 4:10 span early in the second period to take a commanding 8-4 lead.  Haines notched her second of the game off a feed from Emily Sendker (Lancaster, N.Y./Lancaster), Katie Elder (Champlin, Minn./Champlin Park) took a draw control and raced down the left side of the field and scored an unassisted goal then Susie Kraus (Sewickley, Pa./Quaker Valley) capped the run off an assist from Doraty.

Capital made it 8-5 with a free position shot goal from Makenna Ozenghar with 21:27 left but the Mount Union defense took over as Bonaduce had five saves over the next 15 minutes to halt any hopes of a rally.

The Raiders tacked on two more goals in the final three minutes from McNamara and Doraty while Capital scored in closing seconds for the 10-6 final.

Up Next ... NCAA Tournament:

Mount Union claims the conference's automatic bid to the 40-team NCAA Division III Women's Lacrosse Championship. There are 27 conference champions that are automatic qualifiers, four spots reserved for independents or team's from non-automatic qualifying conferences and nine national at-large bids.

The selections will be announced Sunday, May 8 at 9:30 p.m. in an online selection show at NCAA.com. There will be eight first round games on Saturday, May 14 at 1 p.m. and 16 second round games on Sunday, May 15 at 1 p.m. at campus sites.

Box Score

Capital SCORING: GOALS: regan hanood 1 ; kara hines 1 ; victoria husain 1 ; taylor thomas 1 ; makenna ozenghar 1 ; kim hoerauf 1 . ASSISTS: regan hanood 1 .

Mount Union SCORING: GOALS: katherine doraty 2 ; taylor pensyl 2 ; kolbie haines 2 ; marjie mcnamara 2 ; katie elder 1 ; susie kraus 1 . ASSISTS: katherine doraty 1 ; taylor pensyl 1 ; emily bergert 2 ; emily sendker 2 .