PORTLAND, Maine – Saint Joseph's College (6-1, 3-0 GNAC) outlasted Lasell College (4-4, 3-1 GNAC), 9-7, in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) women's lacrosse contest at Deering Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Monks junior goalkeeper Michelle Cunha (Enfield, Conn.) made eight saves in what was the Monks' sixth-consecutive victory.
Saint Joseph's opened the contest with seven-consecutive goals and held a 7-0 cushion heading into halftime, but Lasell came out firing in the second stanza, outscoring the Monks by a 7-2 margin in the latter frame. Ultimately, the Lasers' comeback bid would fall short, as junior defender Meghan Williams (Greenland, N.H./St. Thomas Aquinas) forced a turnover, following a Lasell free-position attempt, with 43 seconds left and Saint Joseph's managed to hold on for an important conference triumph.
For the Monks, junior Elizabeth Elcock (Westwood, Mass.) and sophomore Kelsey Dumond (Lewiston, Maine) both scored twice and freshman Elyse Caiazzo (Scarborough, Maine/Cheverus) tallied two goals, an assist, four ground balls and a pair of draw controls on the afternoon. Junior Kat Gadbois (Scarborough, Maine) registered two goals and a pair of assists while senior Lizzie Calnan (Westport, Mass.) added five caused turnovers and three ground balls and sophomore Jackie Wilson (Tiverton, R.I.) chipped in with three caused turnovers, three draw controls and a pair of ground balls in the GNAC win.
For the Lasers, junior Bridget Doherty (Franklin, Mass.) notched three goals and five ground balls, freshman Taylor Yandow (Moretown, Vt.) scored twice with an assist along with five ground balls, three draw controls and a pair of caused turnovers, and freshman Danielle Chambrelli (Cheshire, Conn.) added a goal and an assist in the losing effort.
Lasell senior goalkeeper Alexa Katsigianis (Amherst, N.H.) made six saves with three ground balls in the setback.
The hosts grabbed control of the contest early, as Elcock, Dumond and Caiazzo netted a pair apiece and Gadbois added a man-up marker to lift the hosts to a 7-0 advantage going into intermission. Cunha held the Lasers off the board with four stops, all in close proximity, in the opening frame.
Lasell finally found the scoreboard at the 27:43 mark of the second stanza, when senior defender Bri Daley (Watertown, Conn.) potted an unassisted tally to cut her team's deficit down to 7-1. Gadbois answered just over five minutes later, as the junior speedster went coast to coast, dangling her way through a handful of defenders before beating Katsigianis with a shot to the top left corner of the net.
The Monks were awarded a two-minute man-up opportunity starting at the 18:08 mark, but it might have looked like a power play for the Lasers, who controlled play during the spell and capitalized with a man-down marker from Yandow, cutting the SJC advantage down to 8-2 with 17:09 left.
As it played out, the shorthanded strike was the beginning of a 4-0 Lasell run, as the visitors crept back into contention with a Chambrelli goal and a pair of Doherty tallies, the latter – assisted by senior Toni Minelli (Newington, Conn.) - making it an 8-5 contest with exactly seven minutes remaining.
Junior Mary Leasure (South Portland, Maine/McAuley) temporarily plugged the leak with an unassisted goal at the 6:26 mark, but the Lasers responded with a Doherty free-position strike, cutting their deficit down to 9-6 with 3:11 left in regulation.
Lasell, which owned an 11-7 draw controls lead in the loss, won the ensuing draw and earned another free-position attempt with 2:27 left, but the shot by Yandow clanged off the post. Yandow redeemed herself 20 seconds later when she netted her second goal of the game, following another free-position play, to account for the 9-7 final.
With the win, Saint Joseph's improves to 3-6 in the history of the series with Lasell College, a team the Monks defeated by a 10-8 margin in Newton, Massachusetts last spring.
Both teams resume play with conference contests on Wednesday, when Saint Joseph's plays at Mount Ida College at 3:30 PM and Lasell hosts Norwich University in a 4:00 PM start.
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Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 474-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.
