Lacrosse Can't Overcome Slow Start In Loss To Nichols

CHICOPEE, Mass. – The Elms College women's lacrosse team fell to Nichols 17-6 in non-conference action at Leary Field on Thursday night.

The Bison (3-6) jumped out to an early 5-0 lead and never trailed. Elms (3-8) cut the lead to 6-3 late in the first half but Nichols tallied the final three goals of the half to take a 9-3 advantage into the break. The Bison then used a 4-1 scoring run over the first 12 minutes of the second half to take a 12-4 lead before cruising to the 17-6 win.

Haley Richard (Monson, Mass.) scored four of the six Elms goals, doing so on six shots. She also added one assist in the game and caused three turnovers. Alecia Keesee (Westfield, Mass.) and Haley Roberts (Westfield, Mass.) each scored once for the Blazers. Vanessa Vurno (Salem, Conn.) had two assists.

Kirsten Sullivan (Arlington, Mass.) finished with a game-high six goals for the Bison and Lindsay O'Connell (Danvers, Mass.) added four goals and two assists.

Elms goalkeeper Emily Huber (Jefferson, Maine) had eight saves in the game and her counterpart Emily Eagan (Hingham, Mass.) finished with seven for the Bison.

Nichols held the advantage in draw controls (15-10), ground balls (12-6), turnovers (22-12) and shots (31-17) in the contest.

Elms will return to New England Collegiate Conference play on Saturday with a trip to Mitchell (12:00 p.m.). Nichols will host Maine-Farmington on Saturday at 3:00 p.m.