Women's Lacrosse Downs Green Mountain

Chris Kendrick (@CKendrick86)

CASTLETON, Vt. – The Elms College women's lacrosse team collected a 15-2 victory over Green Mountain College in a non-conference contest at Spartan Stadium Thursday night. With the win, the Blazers improve to 5-1 on the season, while the Eagles slide to 0-5 overall.

The Blazers got on the scoreboard quickly behind an unassisted strike from junior Jackie Soucia (Belchertown, Mass.) on the opening possession of the game. In the fifth minute of play, freshman Haley Richard (Monson, Mass.) delivered an unassisted tally, followed by a goal from classmate Janis Christian (Westfield, Mass.) on the following possession to build a 3-0 gap.

At the 10:44 mark, Richard connected with freshman Alecia Keesee (Westfield, Mass.) in front of the net, and then Richard potted her second of the day off a feed from sophomore Vanessa Vurno (Salem, Conn.) to extend the Elms advantage to 5-0. After unassisted tallies from junior Alissa Porfilio (Agawam, Mass.) and senior Kathleen Tuechler (Farmingdale, N.Y.), Richard registered consecutive goals to put the Blazers ahead 9-0. Green Mountain received a late goal from junior Rachel Aramburu (Meridan, Idaho) to make it 9-1 at the half.

Elms kicked off the second half with back-to-back goals from Soucia to develop an 11-1 lead. Junior Haley Roberts (Westfield, Mass.) followed suit with two goals off assists from Vurno and Christian. Green Mountain freshman Taylor Merritt (Lebanon, Conn.) netted the final goal for the Eagles with 10:20 remaining to trim the gap to 13-2. Junior Madison Crawford (Bennington, Vt.) and Roberts rounded out the scoring for the Blazers to seal the 15-2 win.

The Blazers offense was led by Richard with five points on four goals and an assist. Roberts recorded her first hat trick of the season with an assist, while Soucia picked up her second hat trick of the season. Vurno dished out a game-high three assists, and Tuechler added two assists and a goal in the win.

The Blazers outshot the Eagles, 39-10, during the contest, and won the ground ball battle, 25-14. Elms senior Meeghan O'Connor (Fall River, Mass.) made five saves, while sophomore Chelsea Wimble (Colchester, Vt.) stopped a game-high 13 shots from Green Mountain.

The Blazers will look for their third straight win when they host Daniel Webster College in a New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) tilt at Leary Field Saturday at 11:00 a.m. Green Mountain faces Maine Maritime Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

ELMS LACROSSE