Worcester, MA- After coming off a routing victory against Emmanuel where they won 14-6, Worcester State Women's Lacrosse team (4-5) faced Wellesley College (2-7) in an away game at Wellesley field.
The Lancers started off hot and kept their foot on the petal throughout the game, scoring four goals and shutting out Wellesley through the first quarter. Senior Lily Gendron (Lakeville, MA) was the first on the board after a clean assist from sophomore Ashley Hurley (Feeding Hills, MA) with about nine minutes to go.
Less than a minute later, the Lancers turned up the heat when senior Shea Jarvis (Auburn, MA) went for the go ahead goal to put the Lancers up 2-0. Shea finished out the first quarter strong when she assisted graduate student Clare Conway (Billerica, MA) not once, but twice to leave Wellesley searching for answers down 4-0 going into the second quarter.
After less than three minutes into the second quarter, Conway once again scored on Wellesley's goalkeeper, this time with the assist from first year Mckayla Fisher (Peabody, MA). Wellesley barely had time to answer as less than twenty seconds later, the Lancers were up once again, taking advantage of a turnover. On this score, first year Cailey Ryan (Acton, MA) assisted senior Emily Pavoni (Granby, MA) to make the score 6-0.
Although there was a slight period of back-and-forth turnovers between the two teams, the Lancers once again increased the lead when Ryan once again helped with the assist, this time to sophomore Ashley Hurley (Feeding Hills, MA) for the goal. After Wellesley raised their hopes by making a few shots against the Lancers and shutting them down for about five minutes, Conway diminished those hopes with her fourth goal of the game, this time assisted by senior Meghan Haines (Agawam, MA).
With roughly a minute and a half left to go before both teams went to halftime, Gendron and Hurley connected for their second goal/assist combo to leave Wellesley reeling into the locker room down by nine scores.
HALFTIME: 9-0
With the Lancers up 9-0 going into the half, Wellesley came out with bravado and aggression to try and mount a comeback before Conway burst through for yet another goal, this time her fifth of the game and assisted by Jarvis for their third connection of the day, putting the Lancers up by ten.
After roughly eight minutes of back-and-forth play and turnovers by both sides, the Lancers looked to pull ahead for the victory when freshman Abigail Vincent (Lakeville, MA) scored her first goal of the game on a run-and-shoot to increase the lead to eleven and becoming the last score of the quarter.
An exact minute into the 4th and final quarter saw the scoreboard increase once again when Lancer sophomore Abigail Wing (Griswold, Conn.) scored her first goal of the game with an assist by senior Jessica McKenzie (Mendon, MA). Although the game looked to be sealed with roughly eight minutes left, the Lancers wanted to prove they were not finished once freshman Molly Witkowski (Port Jervis, NY) scored to increase the lead to thirteen.
As the quarter creeped to a close, in a span of two minutes both Vincent and sophomore Hannah Erickson (Dunstable, MA) scored the final two goals for the Lancers with McKenzie getting her second assist on the goal to Erickson to end the Lancer's score with fifteen total goals. Although the Lancers were looking for a shutout, Wellesley's Finley Tipton took advantage of the Lancers with thirty seconds left and scored their only goal.
FINAL: Lancers 15, Wellesley 1
The Lancers record moves to 5-5 on the season while Wellesley falls to 2-8. The next game for the Lancers sees them traveling to MCLA (2-2) for a game currently scheduled for April 8th at 1 PM to take on the Trailblazers.