Lancers Claim Opening MASCAC Win During Pink Out Weekend

Worcester, MA- The Worcester State Women's Lacrosse team (2-5) faced the Bridgewater State Bears (4-5) today at John Coughlin Memorial Field.

Early counter-attack from the Lancer possession led to a Worcester State goal scored by first year Mckayla Fisher (Peabody, MA). She has won MASCAC Rookie of the Week already twice this season, continuing her good form and play. Bridgewater's sloppy possession in the midfield led to a graduate student Clare Conway (Billerica, MA) goal, putting the Lancers ahead by 2 goals quickly.

Conway doubles down and scores once again on a half-field possession sequence assisted by sophomore Ashley Hurley (Feeding Hills, MA). Bridgewater answered back with a free possession attempt for their first score of the game. Conway continued her run, this time assisting senior Shea Jarvis (Auburn, MA) on the goal. Bridgewater needed to call their first timeout of the game at this point in a bid to settle their team.

Worcester State followed up their last score again with yet another one, this time with a score by freshman Abigail Vincent (Lakeville, MA). For their sixth goal, senior Emily Pavoni (Granby, MA) scored on a free play despite Bridgewater's attempts to make their attack more aggressive. Moments later, Jarvis scored her second goal of the game and 13th of the season. Following this goal, Bridgewater's aggressive tactics finally paid off when they scored their second goal and cut the lead down to 5.

The Bears continued their aggressive strategy by scoring once more, cutting their lead even closer. Worcester goalkeeper senior Savanna Rosado (Milford, MA) saw a lot of action on her side around this time with many of the Bridgewater players attempting to find a chance to put the ball into the back of the net. Fisher answered back and increased the lead once more with her second goal of the game. The period almost ended in disaster for Bridgewater with miscommunication between the goalkeeper and another player as Clare Conway had an open goal but failed to capitalize, leaving the score 8-3.

HALFTIME: 8-3

4 minutes into the third quarter of the second period, Clare Conway added to her impressive game resume by assisting senior Lily Gendron (Lakeville, MA) for the Lancers 9th goal of the game. A familiar connection back-to-back once again as Clare Conway finds Lily Gendron for yet another Lancer goal, this time increasing the score 10-3.

A well-deserved goal by Bridgewater after drawing multiple fouls by the Lancers in one offensive sequence gave the team hope that they were not out of the game yet. A timeout was quickly called and the Lancers were given further defensive instructions to insure Bridgewater would not be able to mount a comeback. 

These instructions must have worked perfectly because not even 2 minutes later, first year Cailey Ryan (Acton, MA) assisted Fisher on her third goal of the game, increasing the score to 11-4. A couple minutes later, a great possession on a half-field set play, led to yet another Lancers goal, this time by Gendron on the assist by Hurley. Bridgewater cut the lead down to 6 following two back-to-back goals moments later, letting the Lancers know they were still in for a fight.

With roughly a minute left to go in the third quarter, the Lancers scored once again with senior Emily Pavoni (Granby, MA) scoring her second goal of the game off a ground ball. Roughly 3 minutes into the final quarter, Bridgewater scored off an assist raising their total on the day to 7. Moments later, Conway responded with yet another assist, this time to Hurley to raise their total score to 14 overall on the day.

After a period of extended possession by both teams for most of the quarter, Bridgewater broke the scoring drought cutting the lead down to 6 with about 3 minutes left to go in the game. For the final goal of the game, Ryan raised the score to 15 on yet another assist from Conway. The Lancers ran away with their first home and conference win of the season.

Conway would end the day recording five assists and two goals, having a hand in nearly half the goals scored for the Lancers. Rosado ended the game with six saves in ent for the Lancers.

FINAL: Lancers 15 , Bridgewater St. 8

The Lancers record moves to 3-5 on the season while Bridgewater moves to 4-6. The next game for the Lancers will once again be at home, this time facing Emmanuel (7-1) at 6 PM on Monday April 3rd.