Lancers Claim Conference Opening Victory Over Bears

Worcester, MA- The Worcester State Lacrosse team (5-4, 0-0) returns to action on a blustery Saturday afternoon to kick off their conference season with a match up with Bridgewater State (4-6, 1-0) who opened up their conference slate on Tuesday with a win versus Mass. Maritime. Worcester State looks to rebound from a chilly battle on Thursday versus Johnson and Wales to add another win to the column.

Final:

Bridgewater State: 12

Worcester State: 13

How it Happened:

Coming off some early scoring struggles on Thursday, Worcester refused to sit back and await the action. While the Bears recorded the first attempt of the game it would be Worcester who scored the opening goal nearly six minutes into the game when sophomore Molly Witkowski (Greenville, NY) would take a second chance shot on an earlier save. Less than a minute later a graduate student Shea Jarvis (Auburn, MA) pass would be snagged by junior Hannah Erickson (Dunstable, MA) for a quick 2-0 lead. 

The Bears then finally answered back with a score that would cut the Lancer lead to 1, coming from Bridgewater's Hannah Bowlby off of the assist from teammate Ashley Silva. Only a few minutes later, the Bears would score again to tie the game up at 2 goals a piece, this time the score coming from number Savannah Herrington from Camryn Gonsalves. 

After a strong defensive showing the Lancers were able to once again reclaim the lead from the Bears, this time coming from junior attacker Abigail Wing (Griswold, CT) with a great assist by senior Sarah Melanson (Wakefield, MA).

The lead would not be safe for long though, as the Bears would once again march down the field to tie the game up at three off Gonsalves who got into the scoring action after assisting on a goal earlier in the period. 

Opening the second period scoring for the Lancers was Witkowski who was able to not only score her second goal of the game, but was also able to regain the lead for her team off of the slick feed from junior attacker Ashley Hurley (Feeding Hills, MA). 

The Bears would not back down though, playing extremely aggressively offensively and once again scored to knot the game up at four goals a piece thanks to Silva. 

As would be expected in this back and forth affair, the Lancers came right back down the field not long after the last goal by the Bears to retake a 5-4 advantage over BSU thanks to the second goal of the game by Wing with another assist by Hurley. The Bears would then go on a three goal run against the Lancers, the first of this run coming off the stick of Herrington who was able to score her second goal of the game to tie the game at 5. The following goal would come from the Bears leading scorer Erin McIntyre, who was able to get into the scoring action for her team with the goal that would give them their first lead of the game at 6-5. The final goal of this run would come once again from Herrington who scored her third goal of the game and gave her team a 7-5 lead over the Lancers. 

WSU was finally able to stop the scoring bleed a few minutes later, with a first year Meghan Bowen (Westfield, MA) goal which was able to cut the lead down to just 1. 

The Bridgewater lead would then be added to, thanks to another goal by McIntyre who was assisted off the feed by Melanie McClay to give the Bears a two goal lead before Worcester would respond with a goal to cut the lead to one with just 35 seconds remaining in the clock as Witkowski would again find the back of the net.

Coming out of the break, the Lancers would waste no time, coming out aggressively and scoring a goal less than 30 seconds into the third period to tie up the game. This score came once again from skillful work of Wing thanks to the assist by Wiktowski. The Bears would not be discouraged though, coming back down the field to once again extend  the lead, thanks to Herrington with her fourth of the game off of the assist by Katy Shaw. 

The Lancers would then answer the Bears once again in this game for goal number nine a few minutes later, this time the goal coming from Jarvis, as the Lancers settled the score with Bridgewater. 

Not long after, Herrington and BSU once again were able to score to regain a one score lead on the Lancers, this would be Herrington's fifth goal of the game for the Bears with another assist for Gonsalves. But Worcester would be equally quick to respond, sneaking in goal number 10 from Jarvis again, this time off the quick moves of Melanson. 

With just over two and half to go in the third quarter Worcester would manage to grab the one goal lead the game sitting at 11-10 as Hurley would work her way into the arc and send the ball past the Bear's keeper Brooke La Torra. Nearly before either team could process the goal, Worcester would again win the draw and work their way into the zone for goal number four for Wing on the day and reclaim the two goal lead. 

As fourth quarter action kicked off, Worcester aimed to maintain their lead and grab an opening conference victory win. Not long after the final quarter started, BSU's Gonsalves was able to move the ball around and eventually get into the middle of the defense to cut into the Lancer lead and move the game to just a single goal lead for Worcester. After the initial early scoring action, both teams would settle into solid defense in their bid to control the game and claim the victory. It took a further 12 minutes of action before a score could break in causing the tie as the Bears McIntyre claimed a free position attempt and converted it for goal 12. 

The game would then come to an end after a nail-biting final few minutes of play that would see both teams desperately trying to reclaim the lead in a tie game coming down to the wire. With just 2.7 seconds left to go in regulation the Lancer's Witkowski would come through with the game winning goal to give her team a 13-12 victory over the Bears. 

Worcester would claim the victory with 33 (26 on cage) shots to Bridgewater's 30 (19 on cage) as junior Olivia LaValle (Peabody, MA) would end the afternoon with seven saves. Witkowski would finish the game with four goals and assist while Wing would record an additional four goals. 

What's Next:

With the conclusion of the game the Lancers now move to (6-4, 1-0) and will return to action on April 4th when they head to Western New England to take on the Golden Bears at 4pm.