Lancers Drop Back-and-Forth Battle to Rams

Worcester, MA- The Worcester State Lacrosse team (8-7, 3-1) square up with conference leaders Framingham State (11-3, 4-0) this evening in a pivotal postseason seeding battle. The winner of this game looks to get the bye into the semifinals and potential hosting rights through the tournament.

Final:

Framingham State: 20

Worcester State: 11

How it Happened:

The first quarter opened up with the Lancers taking on a quick lead as just 30 seconds into the game sophomore Molly Witkowski (Greenville, NY) would make quick work of sophomore Mckayla Fisher's (Peabody, MA) draw control win for goal number one of the day. The Rams would be just as quick to respond as Molly Lanier would tie up just over 30 seconds later. In what turned into a quick shot quarter for Worcester, they would respond with another Witkowski goal followed closely on the heels by a junior Abigail WIng (Griswold, CT) goal to grab a 3-1 lead. Graduate student Shea Jarvis (Auburn, MA) would extend the lead to three before the Ram's Hailey Baker would be able to find goal number two for Framingham. Just over a minute later, the Ram's Rachel Erickson would grab goal three followed up by a Leah Green goal to tie the game up at four. Framingham would grab their first lead of the day in the seventh minute off of an Erickson goal but Wing would charge right down the field and tie up at five goals apiece. In the final minute the Rams would grab two quick goals to take a 7-5 lead into the first break.

The second quarter opened with a Witkowski hatrick being complete. She would again score within the opening seconds of the quarter, this time assisted by Jarvis. Wing would get a chance to equalize the scoreline but the Rams keeper had other ideas, but almost six minutes into the second quarter action, WIng would finally find the tying goal, sending ehr shot sailing into the back of the net. A minute later sophomore Shannon Donahue (Dennis, MA) would reclaim the Worcester in this back and forth battle and extend the lead a minute later, with a quick slip from the right hand corner of the arc. The Rams would finally get a couple of shots on target and this would result in them getting one goal back. A penalty set play executed by the Rams would make the scoreline 9-9. A Lancer timeout to make some minor adjustments would initially see the Rams extend their lead to 11-9 after the halftime break, but a Jarvis goal would cut the deficit to just one. 

The Rams would turn on a switch in the second half though and managed to shut the Lancers down offensively, scoring nine unanswered goals before Wing would drop in the last goal of the game for Worcester as they dropped a hotly contested battle 20-11.

What's Next:

Worcester State moves to (8-8, 3-2) on the season and will close out regular season action this Saturday when the journey to Fitchburg State to play the Falcons at 12pm in a game to determine playoff pairings.