Women’s Lacrosse Claws Past Wheelock College, 15-9

Box Score

CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College senior attacker Melissa Meon (South Hadley, Mass.) scored a game-high six goals to help lift the Blazers to a 15-9 victory over Wheelock College in Tuesday afternoon's non-conference women's lacrosse game at Leary Field.

With the win, Elms snapped its four-game losing skid to improve to 3-8 overall, while Wheelock remains winless at 0-7 on the season.

Elms built an early 4-0 lead on the strength of two scores by Meon and one each from sophomore midfielder Catherine Duquette (Naples, Maine) and sophomore attacker Lauren Kalbach (West Harwich, Mass.) in the first 7:22 of play.

After playing 15:09 of scoreless lacrosse, Jenna Ghoman (Danvers, Mass.) put Wheelock on the board when she found the back of the net to set the score at 4-1. Blazers' junior midfielder Sarah Picard (West Springfield, Mass.) answered with a goal on a feed from junior attacker Chelsey Grabowski (South Hadley, Mass.) at the 4:51 mark, and Grabowski netted a goal of her own 1:31 later to give Elms a 6-1 cushion.

The Wildcats then struck for three scores in a row as Despina Savvoulides (Norwalk, Conn.), Kelsey Schools (Enfield, Conn.) and Taylor Rogers (Essex, Mass.) tallied a goal apiece to cut Elms' lead to 6-4.

Meon then fired in a goal with one second remaining in the period to give the Blazers a three-goal, 7-4 lead at intermission.

Elms started the second half the same it did the first as Meon recorded three consecutive goals with the first two separated by 34 seconds to give the Blazers a 10-4 advantage.

Grabowski and Savvoulides then traded four back-and-forth goals to set the score at 12-6 in favor of Elms with 19:36 to play in the contest.

Kylie Hefford (Exeter, N.H.) pulled Wheelock to within five with a scoring strike off a pass from Rogers at the 15:19 mark, but goals by Elms' freshman midfielder Brianna Lyons (Canton, Mass.) and Duquette extended the Blazers' lead back to seven at 14-7.

The Wildcats' Christina Cubera (Baltimore, Md.) and Hefford bookended a score by Elms' junior attacker Emily Walsh (Hadley, Mass.) to cap the scoring for the game.

Lyons and Walsh collected a game-high six groundballs each, while Lyons caused three turnovers in the winning effort.

Hefford notched five groundball pickups for Wheelock, while Savvoulides registered four groundballs in the losing effort.

Elms' freshman net-minder Julie Hurley (Palmer, Mass.) improved to 1-1 on the season with 12 saves, while Wheelock's Sara Davis (Cranston, R.I.) suffered the loss following an 11-save effort.

Elms returns to New England Women's Lacrosse Alliance (NEWLA) action on Saturday, April 16 when it hosts Worcester State University at 1:00 p.m. at Leary Field.