Posted: Mar 31, 2015

Women's Lacrosse Sinks Mariners

CHICOPEE, Mass. - The Elms College women's lacrosse team throttled visiting Mitchell College, 22-9, in their New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) opener at Leary Field Tuesday afternoon. With the win, Elms improves to 3-4 overall and 1-0 in the NECC, while Mitchell drops to 0-4, and 0-1 in NECC play.

The Blazers wasted little time getting on the scoreboard as senior midfielder Kayla Narey (South Hadley, Mass.) took a feed from junior attacker Jillian Pirog (Ludlow, Mass.) and placed a shot past Mitchell sophomore goalie Taylor Dansereau (Griswold, Conn.) to give the Blazers a 1-0 lead in the opening thirty second of play. Elms pushed their lead to 2-0 with an unassisted strike from Pirog at the 24:25 mark. The Mariners cut their deficit to 2-1 as sophomore attacker Ashley Murtha (South Windsor, Conn.) cut through the Blazers defense and fired a shot to the low right side of the net. Elms responded less than minute later as Pirog converted off a pass from freshman attacker Haley Roberts (Westfield, Mass.), followed by an unassisted tally from senior attacker Nora McDonough (South Hadley, Mass.) to give Elms a 4-1 lead with 21:26 to play.

Mitchell rallied back behind goals from Murtha and freshman attacker Tiana Fillmore (Norwich, Conn.) to cut the Blazers advantage to 5-3 with 17:25 remaining in the first half. Elms pulled away over the next eight minutes, rattling off five goals, including a pair from McDonough and Pirog, to rebuild a 10-3 lead. Murtha registered a hat trick with a free position tally in the 22^nd minute. The Blazers exploded for six goals during the final five minutes, getting two goals from Pirog and freshman midfielder Victoria-Lynn Smith (Somers, Conn.), to take a 16-4 lead into halftime.

Elms opened the scoring in the second half on a strike from Pirog at the 27:59 mark. A pair of goals from Murtha sandwiched strikes from Roberts and freshman defender Jackie Soucia (Belchertown, Mass.), to make it 20-6 game with 13:29 to play. Soucia and McDonough scored back-to-back to extend the Blazers lead to 22-6 at with 7:52 remaining. The Mariners netted three goals in the final seven minutes of play with a pair from Murtha and a strike from freshman midfielder Vannessa Ortiz (Antioch, Calif.), as Elms cruised to the 22-9 victory.

"It's our first conference win so that's fantastic," said Elms Head Coach Maureen Ruane. "I'm really excited about that and it's a good win to open up our conference schedule. Our transition looked much better today, and our ball placement on shots looked better. We need to clean up our checking, work on moving our feet, and playing better defense moving forward. I'm hoping we come out with another win against Bay Path, and start the conference season 2-0."

The Blazers outshot the Mariners, 37-21, during the contest. Mitchell won the draw control battle, 19-10, and ground balls, 46-36, while Elms caused more turnovers, 17-5.

Pirog and McDonough led the way for the Blazers with seven goals apiece. Pirog added a pair of assists, while McDonough added one helper. Soucia, Smith, and junior attacker Ashley Cava (Wilbraham, Mass.) each scored two goals, with Cava adding a pair of assists. Roberts dished out a game-high three assists with her first career goal. Murtha netted seven goals for Mitchell, with Ortiz and Fillmore adding to their total. Elms sophomore Meeghan O'Connor (3-4, Fall River, Mass.) made a game-high eight saves for the Elms, while Dansereau (0-4) stopped eight shots for the Mariners.

The Blazers will return to NECC action Wednesday, April 8^th with a home tilt against Bay Path University at 7:00 p.m. Mitchell will travel to Massachusetts Maritime for a 7:00 game on April 2^nd.

ELMS LACROSSE