Women's Lax Tops Nichols, 19-12

NEWTON, Mass. (3/15/14) – The Lasell College women's lacrosse team defeated Nichols College 19-12 in non-conference action on Saturday afternoon at Grellier Field. The Lasers improved to 2-3 on the year, while the Bison slipped to 2-1 with the loss.

Caitlin Brecher (Cheshire, Conn.) and Britney Wuorio (Bolton, Mass.) each scored four times for Lasell, while Wuorio added three assists and Brecher added one helper. Ashlee Pechulis (Westfield, Mass.) finished with three goals and two assists and Toni Minelli (Newington, Conn.) chipped in with three goals and one assist while Taylor Dooley Barnstable, Mass.) scored a pair. Alexa Katsigianis (Amherst, N.H.) made 12 saves in the cage for Lasell before giving way to Brooke Bergeron (Swampscott, Mass.) for the final 12 minutes of action.

Alexa Smith (Salem, N.H.) finished with three goals and three assists for Nichols who also saw Talia Hohman (Marina, Calif.), Grace Murphy (Montclair, Va.) and Erica Antonison (Albertson, N.Y.) record hat-tricks as well. Katherine Cotton (Kennebunk, Maine) suffered her first defeat of the year in goal for the Bison, stopping 10 shots in the game.

The Lasers jumped out to an early lead, scoring the first five goals of the contest including a pair by Brecher and one from Wuorio who assisted on both goals by Brecher. Grace Murphy netted a free position attempt with 19:19 to play in the half to get Nichols on the board before Lasell added three more goals to take an 8-1 lead. Nichols used goals by Hohman and Smith to draw within five goals at 8-3 at the intermission.

Lasell opened the second half with four consecutive goals to take a 12-3 lead as Minelli tallied a goal and an assist in the run. Murphy netted an unassisted goal for the Bison before goals by Dooley and Bri Daley (Watertown, Conn.) helped Lasell to a 14-4 advantage with 24:35 to play in the game. Lasell held their biggest lead of the contest at 18-7 on a goal by Ashley Gleason (Suffield, Conn.) with 11:53 left, before Nichols closed the margin with a 5-1 spurt to close the game.

Nichols will host Mass. Maritime on Wednesday March 19^th at 7:00 p.m. while Lasell will return to action on Tuesday March 18^th when they host Anna Maria College in their Great Northeast Athletic Conference opener at 3:30 p.m.