Westfield State 17, Worcester State 14
Westfield, MA --- Juniors Rachel Dionne (Feeding Hills, MA) and Laura Chiricosta (Lexington, MA) and freshman Ari Colella (Franklin, MA) each scored four goals to lead Westfield State to a hard-earned 17-14 victory over Worcester State in women’s lacrosse on Saturday evening, April 24.
Westfield is 10-2 overall and remains in first place in the New England Women’s Lacrosse Alliance (NEWLA) with a perfect 5-0 record. Worcester drops to 5-5 and 3-3.
The Owls snapped a 4-4 tie midway through the first half on unanswered goals by freshman Maura Stack (Wilbraham, MA), Colella, Dionne and Chiricosta.
Chiricosta also scored twice in the final four minutes of the first half to lead the Owls to a 10-5 lead at the intermission. Senior Kim Vail (W. Newbury, MA) and junior Carley MacIntyre (Townsend, MA) each netted a pair of markers for the Lancers at the break.
Westfield State took its biggest lead, 11-5, on a goal by Chiricosta 10 seconds into the second half. But the Lancers closed to within two, 13-11, with 9:48 remaining.
Westfield State responded with four straight goals for a 17-11 lead with 4:40 remaining. Sophomore Carly Keeley (Feedings Hills, MA) scored twice in the key scoring spurt to give the Owls what they needed to end the contest. Despite that, WSC rattled off three consecutive tallies for the final score.
Worcester State actually outscored Westfield State 9-7 in the second half. The Owls did have a 34-31 edge in shots, but WSC controlled the ground ball category as they finished with a 25-19 edge.
Chiricosta also had two assists to lead all scorers with six points. Dionne had an assist to finish with five points. Keely had a game-best five ground balls for Westfield State while senior Ally Brown (Andover, MA) added six draw controls.
Vail and senior Amanda Cosenza (Shrewsbury, MA) chipped in with four goals apiece for the Lancers while MacIntyre notched a hat trick. Fourth-year Brittany Jamieson (Foxboro, MA) picked up four ground balls while Cosenza and classmate Kaitlyn Byrne (Mashpee, MA) combined to amass seven ground balls.
Sophomore Haley Erickson (Saugus, MA) stopped seven shots for Worcester State as her record is now 5-5 between the pipes while her counterpart, freshman Bretta Anderson (Holden, MA), improved to 5-2 as she scooped up six saves for the Owls.
The Lancers will play two in the next week when they travel to Norwich for a non-conference contest on Tuesday at 4 PM before they end the regular season at home against Castleton in a 1:30 battle. The Owls travel to Bridgewater State for a key NEWLA road game on Tuesday at 4 o'clock and they will entertain Elms on Saturday at 6.
Portions of Release Courtesy of Westfield State Sports Information