PREVIEW: Field Hockey Rolls to First GNAC Semifinal

NEWTON, Mass. -- The Lasell College field hockey team will continue its Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) postseason run into the semifinal round for the first time ever on Wednesday night, traveling north to face top-seeded St. Joseph's College of Maine.

The contest will begin at 7:00 p.m. from Deering Memorial Stadium in Portland.

Lasell enters its semifinal contest with a 12-6 record and on a three-game win streak as it earned a 2-1 win over rival and fifth-seeded Mount Ida in dramatic fashion in Saturday's first round. Samantha Taylor (Hanover, Mass.) scored the fourth game-winning goal of her freshman with just 1:30 to play in regulation to propel the Lasers to victory.

Seeds held true in the first round as third-seeded Johnson & Wales squeezed out a 1-0 win over Anna Maria in the opening game on the other side of the bracket, while the Monks and No. 2 Simmons had Saturday off and awaited the winners.

Sophomore Cailin Flannery (Newton, N.J.) assisted on both Lasell goals against the Mustangs, earning GNAC Player of the Week honors for the second time this season Monday. Flannery leads the conference with 11 helpers on the season and enters the semifinal round with points in five of her last six games.

Taylor ranks in a tie for third in the GNAC with 13 goals on the season and shared GNAC Rookie of the Week honors with JWU's Morgan Matthews after her late-game heroics. Her 29 points are second-most on the team, trailing only Flannery.

Lasell has allowed just 1.37 goals per game this season and held Mount Ida to just five shots on goal, but it will be pitted against the lone team with better defensive numbers in St. Joe's. The Lasers have the slight edge on offense, having scored 50 goals on the season as compared to the Monks' 41.

SJC enters postseason play with an 11-6 record and 5-1 mark in GNAC play, but saw an eight-game winning streak come to an end with a 1-0 overtime setback to Plymouth State in its Oct. 26 regular-season finale.

The Monks won their only other meeting with the Lasers this season as freshman Libby Pomerleau (Limerick, Maine) scored both SJC goals in a 2-1 win on Sept. 23, including the game-winner 4:24 into overtime. Pomerleau is a three-time GNAC Rookie of the Week this season and is the Monks' leading scorer by a ten-point margin, with 35 on the season.

Wednesday night's contest will feature two of the conference's top goalkeepers in Lasell junior Denise Landry (New Milford, Conn.) and SJC sophomore Megan Baker (Gorham, Maine). Baker leads the GNAC with a 1.04 goals-against average and has conceded just 15 times, while Landry sits second in the former category with a 1.35 mark.

Historically speaking, Lasell had lost its quarterfinal contest in each of the first two years of GNAC play, falling to JWU last year and at Anna Maria prior. The Lasers' latest prior postseason win was in 2006 as a member of the North Atlantic Conference, when it downed Castleton State before losing to UMaine-Farmington.