Thomas College Bests Women’s Lacrosse, 17-4
CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College sophomore midfielder Lauren Mazza (Feeding Hills, Mass.) scored two goals and sophomore goalkeeper Alysha Parsons (Newington, Conn.) made 14 saves but Thomas College used five goals and two assists from Ceara DiBiase (Westbrook, Maine) to help secure a 17-4 victory in Saturday afternoon's non-conference women's lacrosse game at Leary Field.
With the loss, Elms starts its season 0-1 overall, while Thomas improves to 1-1 on the season.
Thomas built a 12-1 advantage over the first 30 minutes of play as DiBiase scored three of her five goals in the first half and also notched both assists in the stanza. Jillian Lambert (Dayton, Maine), Brittany Premo (Concord, N.H.) and Jennifer Day (Gardiner, Maine) each registered a pair of goals in the half, while Jasmine Ryan (Berwick, Maine) added a marker and two helpers.
Trailing 11-0 with 2:58 to play in the first half, Mazza struck for the first of her two scores when she netted a feed from senior attacker Chelsey Grabowski (South Hadley, Mass.) to give the Blazers their first goal of the season.
The second half saw the Terriers find the back of the net five more times including two apiece from DiBiase and Erin Nelligan (Walpole, Mass.) who finished with a total of three goals in the contest.
Grabowski scored her tally at the 24:34 mark, while Mazza delivered her second strike on a free position shot with 12:16 remaining in the game.
Sophomore attacker Nora McDonough (South Hadley, Mass.) notched her first goal of the season with just under three minutes to play in the game.
Nelligan picked up a game-best six groundballs and caused three turnovers for Thomas, while Elms' freshman defender Melissa LaFlamme (West Springfield, Mass.) added four groundballs of her own and junior midfielder Brianna Lyons (Canton, Mass.) caused four Terriers' turnovers.
Brittany Fox (Lovell, Maine) earned her first collegiate victory between the pipes making eight saves to help Thomas to its first win of the season.
Elms returns to non-league action on Wednesday, March 6 when it travels to the Sage Colleges at 7:00 p.m.
