Women's Lacrosse Holds Off Simmons Comeback for 16-14 Win

NEWTON, Mass. (3/29/14) – The Lasell College women's lacrosse team survived a strong comeback effort from Simmons College to claim a 16-14 Great Northeast Athletic Conference victory on Saturday afternoon at Grellier Field. The Lasers remained unbeaten in GNAC games, improving to 3-0 in the league and 5-3 overall while Simmons slipped to 4-3 on the year and 3-2 in conference games.

Britney Wuorio (Bolton, Mass.) set a new Lasell single-game assist record, tallying eight assists while scoring three goals to power the Lasers offense. Ashlee Pechulis (Westfield, Mass.) also had a career day, with a career-high six goals, a pair of assists and six draw controls while Caitlyn Brecher (Cheshire, Conn.) notched five goals for the Lasers. Alexa Katsigianis (Amherst, N.H.) made seven saves for Lasell to earn her fifth win of the season in the cage.

Stephanie Oliveri (Waltham, Mass.) scored five goals and handed out two assists to pace the Sharks offense and Alexia Malone (Bristol, R.I.) scored four times as well. Ashley Sheehan (North Attleboro, Mass.) added a pair of goals and Becca Shea (Quincy, Mass.) chipped in with a goal and an assist. Crystal Derosier (Kingston, Mass.) took the loss, stopping seven shots in goal.

Sheehan opened the scoring with a free position shot to put Simmons ahead just over a minute into the first half. Lasell bounced back with three straight goals, a man-up goal by Pechulis followed by a pair of goals from Brecher to take a 3-1 edge. Simmons came right back with four unanswered goals over an eight minute span that put the visitors in front 5-3 with 13:09 to play in the opening half.

Wuorio then went on a spree of creating offense for Lasell, assisting on four straight goals, scoring once and then adding one more assist to propel Lasell to a 9-5 lead with a 6-0 run that was stopped by a Oliveri goal with a tenth of a second left in the half, sending the two teams into the intermission with Lasell on top 9-6.

Lasell scored four of the first six goals to open the second half, holding a 13-8 advantage with just over 21 minutes to play in the game. Simmons responded with some offensive fireworks of their own to claw their way back into the game. The Sharks ran off six consecutive goals including two from Malone and two from Oliveri to burst into the lead, 14-13 with 11:26 left in the game.

Wuorio found a cutting Brecher to tie the game at 14-14 with 8:26 to play and Lasell went back in front 15-14 when Pechulis set-up Wuorio's third goal of the game with just under five minutes on the clock. Taylor Dooley (Barnstable, Mass.) iced the game with a goal on a pass from Toni Minelli (Newington, Conn.) with 36 seconds remaining to secure the win.

Simmons will host Norwich on Tuesday April 1^st at 7:00 p.m. while Lasell will travel to the University of St. Joseph's of Connecticut on April 1^st at 4:00 p.m.