The American University women's basketball team had its program-record 15-game winning streak snapped on Monday night with a 67-52 defeat to Holy Cross in the Patriot League Semifinals in Bender Arena.

Top-seeded American (23-7, 14-0 PL) fell behind early to fifth-seed Holy Cross (18-13, 7-7 PL) as the Crusaders jumped out to a 10-2 advantage four minutes into the game. Holy Cross continued to apply the early pressure, extending its lead to 22-10 at the 12:28 mark. After a Jen Dumiak bucket for the Eagles with 8:42 to go in the half, AU went scoreless for more than seven minutes as Holy Cross put together a 10-0 run to open up a 32-12 margin. An Ebony Edwards layup and a free throw by Lisa Strack set the halftime score at 32-15 in favor of Holy Cross.

The Crusaders continued to control the action early in the second half as Amy Lepley and Ashley Cooper hit back-to-back threes to push the lead past 20 for the first time in the game. Another Lepley bucket extended Holy Cross' advantage to 24, 49-25, with 11:06 to go and the Crusaders eventually took a game-high 25-point lead on two different occasions.

AU tried to fight its way back in the game as Alexis Dobbs and Dumiak buried back-to-back threes to cut the deficit to 58-39 with 6:45 to play, forcing Holy Cross into calling a timeout. But another Lepley bucket on the next possession swung the momentum back in Holy Cross' favor.

Holy Cross shot an even 50 percent in the game as well as 50 percent (7-of-14) from three-point range. Lepley led the way with a game-high 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting, including 3-of-5 from deep.

American registered a 29-percent clip from the floor and only a 20 percent mark (5-of-25) from three-point range. Dumiak recorded team-high with 11 points, five boards, and three assists, while Ti'Asia McGeorge scored eight points.

"I'm really disappointed for our seniors especially because the Patriot League run up to this point has been fantastic," Head Coach Matt Corkery said. "Getting 14 wins in the league, no one has ever done that … I thought we prepared extremely well this week and we were ready to play. It wasn't a matter of us not being ready to play. Give a lot of credit to Holy Cross as well because they came in here and played a really good game tonight."

The setback ends AU's 15-game winning streak, which included becoming the first team to ever go 14-0 in the Patriot League regular season. American has captured each of the last three regular season titles and four of the last five.

The Eagles will make their third appearance in the WNIT in the last four seasons and the bracket will be revealed late next Monday night.