Twenty-One First Half Goals Lift Women’s Lacrosse Over Mitchell College, 27-8

CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College junior attacker Nora McDonough (South Hadley, Mass.) scored a game-high six goals, and junior midfielder Kayla Narey (South Hadley, Mass.) and freshman defender Kathleen Tuechler (Farmingdale, N.Y.) netted five and four goals respectively to help pace the Blazers to a 27-8 victory over Mitchell College in Thursday evening's New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) women's lacrosse game at Leary Field.

With the win, Elms improves to 3-8 overall, 1-1 in NECC action, while Mitchell moves to 1-6 on the season, 1-3 in league play.

In the opening nine minutes of play, Elms scored five of the first six goals as Tuechler and McDonough found the back of the net twice and freshman midfielder Emily Dawson (Somers, Conn.) added a goal to give the Blazers a 5-1 lead.

Ashley Murtha (South Windsor, Conn.) fired in the first Mitchell goal and following Elms' early rally, responded with a stretch of four straight goals of their own including two more markers from Murtha and two from Sophie Spiller (Poland, Maine) to knot the game at 5-5 with 17:19 to play in the first half.

From there, Elms scored 16 of the next 18 goals as Narey netted four goals; McDonough and sophomore attacker Ashley Cava (Wilbraham, Mass.) drove in three goals apiece;  Dawson and sophomore attacker Jillian Pirog (Ludlow, Mass.) registered two strikes; while senior midfielder Brianna Lyons (Canton, Mass.) and Tuechler added a goal each during the run.

Murtha and Spiller each notched a goal for the Mariners to close out the half with the score set at 21-7 in favor of the Blazers.

In the second half, McDonough found nylon twice more, and Pirog and Narey netted a goal each, while sophomore defender Emily Brown (Agawam, Mass.) and junior defender Danielle Jez (Westfield, Mass.) each scored to cap the win.

Murtha beat the goalkeeper with 22:21 to play in the game to record her fifth goal of the contest.

Elms' sophomore net-minder Sarah Carpenter (Vernon, Conn.) turned away three shots in the winning effort while her Mariners' counterpart Anysia Lombardo (South Windsor, Conn.) made 13 saves.

Narey led all players with four groundballs and added six draw controls while Tuechler earned nine draw controls in the winning effort.

Elms returns to action on Wednesday, April 23 when it hosts Regis College at 7:00 p.m. at Leary Field.