Southern Vermont Outlasts Women's Lacrosse

Source: (Southern Vermont Athletics)

BENNINGTON, Vt. — Southern Vermont College picked up a New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) women's lacrosse victory Saturday afternoon at Everett Field, defeating the visiting Elms College Blazers 20-18 in both teams' regular season finale.

The match was tight from wire to wire as neither side led by more than three at any point. SVC got the last strike of the first half with just 22 ticks left, taking a 10-9 edge into the break. Elms tied the game at 18-18 with 7:27 to go in regulation, but the Mountaineers were able to find the back of the net two more times while keeping EC out of theirs to clip the Blazers for the hard-fought win.

SVC broke its previous single-game scoring record of 15 in the process while junior captain Mel Orrell (Gloucester, Mass.) notched a season-best eight goals in the victory, surpassing the 100 career tallies mark and finishing the season as the NECC's top scorer with 59 on the year.

The win is the fifth for Southern Vermont in 2016, eclipsing the team's victory mark set during its inaugural season of 2015. The Mountaineers finish the Conference campaign with a 5-2 mark in league action (5-10 overall), securing the No. 3 seed in the upcoming NECC playoffs. Elms wraps up the regular season at 7-9 overall and 3-4 against the league, grabbing the sixth seed in next week's tournament.

That seeding will bring Elms back to Everett Field on Tuesday for a 4 p.m. first-round playoff showdown which will be a rematch of a 2015 first rounder that saw EC win and move onto the semifinals.

Orrell also tallied seven ground balls Saturday to tie the game-high while snagging a match-best 10 draw controls to tie her career-high. Fellow junior captain Emily Lesure (Cheshire, Mass.) added another five goals, six ground balls and three draw controls, and additional junior captain Lauren Nesshoever (Chittenden, Vt.) had five goals of her own, adding five draw controls to her line.

SVC sophomore goaltender Kelsey Carrera (Queensbury, N.Y.) made eight saves in the win (3-5), tying Orrell with seven ground balls in the defensive end. EC sophomore keeper Alissa Porfilio (Agawam, Mass.) turned away 11 Mountaineer shots in the loss (2-2).

Elms was led by a seven-goal performance from freshman Vanessa Vurno(Salem, Conn.) who also had an assist and five ground balls. Senior Jill Pirog(Ludlow, Mass.) had another four goals and two ground balls while sophomoreJackie Soucia (Belchertown, Mass.) totaled four more goals and a team-high eight draw controls.

Southern Vermont owned a 25-16 upper hand on the draw, breaking its previous single-game team record of 19 controls. SVC scooped up a 32-25 advantage in ground balls and scored four free-position goals to Elms' two.

EC wasted little time in getting on the scoreboard first as sophomore Victoria-Lynn Smith (Somers, Conn.) made the most of a free-position opportunity at the left edge of the fan, slotting her 16th goal of the year into the lower-left corner of the frame. Pirog notched her first of the day to give the Blazers a two-goal lead, but it would not be sustained for long as Lesure came back with two straight to tie the score.

Lesure took the ball from the left side of the pitch and crossed into the center, hopping into the air before firing a shot into the upper-right corner of the net. She then sent home a free-position shot off the ground, tying the score at 2-2. Elms was able to bounce back with the next two as the back-and-forth heated up, Vurnofirst taking pass from Smith below the goal line and popping in front before flinging in her first of the afternoon. Sophomore Lindsay McNiff (Kingston, Mass.) then notched her second of the year off the ensuing draw.

Nesshoever would score twice in a 1:01 span of clock time to once again tie thegame, ripping in an over-hand shot before circling around from the right side and sending a back-handed flick past the Blazer goalie. After Elms got the next tally to go back in front, Nesshoever and Orrell recorded back-to-back goals to give SVC its first lead of the day at the 14:49 mark of the first.

Pirog tied it at 6-6, only to see Orrell and Nesshoever put their team up by two with another pair of consecutive scores. The Blazers showed their tenacity in fighting back as Vurno found the back of the net twice in under two minutes, and the two sides traded scores down the stretch as Elms tied it at 9-9 with 1:43 on the clock despite having a player in the penalty area.

Lesure was awarded a free-position shot with about 30 seconds left in the half, but Porfilio was able to come up with the point-blank save; the rebound trickled out, however, and was juggled around by both teams before Lesure got her stick quickly on it in the air and fired it into the goal, putting SVC up 10-9 as the game hit the halftime intermission.

The battle continued once play resumed, Vurno potting a right-handed, sideways shot just 46 seconds into the period for the equalizer. Nesshoever answered with her 27th goal of the year off the subsequent draw control, and Orrell pushed it back to a two-goal lead with her fourth of the day only 20 seconds later. Pirog cut into the deficit as she bounced in a shot from about 10 yards away on the right edge, but Orrell responded when she intercepted a clearing pass from the Elms goalie, took a few steps and fired it into the open net.

Southern Vermont took the biggest lead of the day for either team at the 20:01mark after a Nesshoever shot was deflected away by Porfilio, Mountaineer sophomore Natalie Rose Canterbury (New Haven, Conn.) scooping up the carom and depositing her fifth goal of the year on the man-up opportunity to make it a 14-11 advantage. Elms got it back to a one-goal deficit as Vurno and Soucia teamedup to score twice in just 12 seconds.

Orrell got her 100th to go on a free-position shot at the left edge, firing in a low attempt to make it a 15-13 contest. Lesure added another free-position goal minutes later to extend the separation back to three, but Vurno fed Pirog before she notched her 46th goal of the year to make it a 16-15 SVC lead.

Scoring went back-and-forth before Soucia registered two huge goals to tie it at 18-18, her first coming at the 8:40 mark when she came down the gut of the pitch through the SVC defense and tossed a shot into the left side off the cage. She then came from the top of the fan, reaching up to grab a pass from senior Ashley Cava (Wilbraham, Mass.) behind the Southern Vermont net; Soucia pushed the feed into the goal, her 45th of the season making it an 18-18 game with just 7:27left to play.

That would be the final Blazer goal of the evening, however, as the Mountaineers were able to fend off the EC offense the rest of the way. Carrera made three big saves at one end of the field before freshman Stephany Ferreira (Shelton, Conn.) tallied her fourth goal of the season – and possibly the biggest to date of her young career – at the other. With a Mountaineer in the penalty area, Orrell circled around the top of the fan with the ball before seeing Ferreira cut in front of the frame undefended; the SVC freshman caught the pass, turned and bounced it into the right side of the net for what proved to be the game-winning goal.

Orrell then added some insurance and her league-leading 59th goal of the year as she worked the right corner of the field before popping out in front of the cage,spinning around and whipping a shot past the Elms goaltender with just 55 seconds to go. EC was able to force a turnover but could not manufacture it into a goal as the final horn sounded for the Mountaineers to celebrate their close victory.

ELMS LACROSSE