Regis College Advances Past Women’s Lacrosse, 20-8
WESTON, Mass. – Elms College had four players score twice, but Regis College used seven goals from Samantha Salamone (Milford, Mass.) and four each from Grace Politis (Billerica, Mass.) and Katie Haidemenos (Warwick, R.I.) to help lift the top-seeded Pride to an 20-8 victory over the fourth-seeded Blazers in Wednesday's New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Championship tournament semifinal women's lacrosse game at Regis Stadium in Weston, Mass.
With the loss, Elms concludes its season 5-10 overall, while Regis punches its ticket to the first-ever NECC Championship title game and improves to 12-6 on the season.
Senior attacker Chelsey Grabowski (South Hadley, Mass.), sophomore attackers Lauren Mazza (Agawam, Mass.) and Nora McDonough (South Hadley, Mass.) and freshman attacker Ashley Cava (Wilbraham, Mass.) each scored twice for the Blazers in the losing effort.
Elms' senior goalkeeper Catherine Leonard (Chicopee, Mass.) made 15 saves in the losing effort, while sophomore defender Kate Borisova (Chicopee, Mass.) and senior defender Erika Murphy (Torrington, Conn.) led the squad with four groundballs each. Freshman defender Emily Brown (Agawam, Mass.) notched four draw controls for the Blazers.
Mary Roma (Portland, Maine) notched four groundballs for the Pride, while Politis controlled play off the draw with 11 draw controls. Pride keeper Emma Decker (Southborough, Mass.) made five saves between the pipes to earn the win.
In the first period, Cava put Elms in the lead just 38 seconds into the contest and following a Regis goal, Grabowski netted her first goal to give Elms a 2-1 lead at the 24:29 mark.
Regis then erupted for five straight goals and eight of the next 10 to take a 9-4 lead at intermission.
The Blazers answered in the first eight minutes of the second half as Mazza fired in back-to-back markers and McDonough added a score to pull Elms to within two at 9-7 with 22:29 to play in the game. However, Regis again answered, this time with 11 goals as the Pride pulled away to a 20-8 win.
