Women's Lacrosse Thumps Saint Joseph

Chris Kendrick (@CKendrick86)

CHICOPEE, Mass. – The Elms College women's lacrosse team wrapped up their regular season home schedule with a 21-5 win over visiting Saint Joseph (CT) in a non-conference game at Leary Field Monday afternoon. With the win, the Blazers improve to 11-2, while the Blue Jays dropped to 3-10 on the season.

The Blazers wasted little time getting on the scoreboard as senior Kathleen Tuechler (Farmingdale, N.Y.) scored off a pass from sophomore Vanessa Vurno (Salem, Conn.) just over a minute into play. St. Joseph junior Hannah Lemek (Bristol, Conn.) answered for the Blue Jays with an unassisted strike at the 27:41 mark. Vurno and freshman Haley Richard (Monson, Mass.) connected just over 30 seconds later to ignite a 13-0 run for the Blazers over the next 22 minutes.Tuechler sandwiched a pair of goals around another tally from Richard to push the lead to 5-1. After Richard and junior Jackie Soucia (Belchertown, Mass.) found the back of the net, freshman Janis Christian (Westfield, Mass.) scored five of the next six goals for Elms to escort the lead to 13-1. Following a goal from Elms junior Lindsey McNiff (Kingston, Mass.), Blue Jays freshman Charlotte Eberhardt (Thomaston, Conn.) halted the Blazers run to set the score at 14-2 at the half.

Lemek opened the second-half scoring with a free-position strike at the 28:20 mark. Juniors Arianna Santiago-Sullivan (Willimantic, Conn.) and Madison Crawford (Bennington, Vt.) potted the first of seven goals for the Blazers in the final frame. Following a goal from Saint Joseph senior Vicky Thai (West Hartford, Conn.), Elms rattled off five straight goals, featuring tallies from freshmen Kelly Scianna (Milford, Conn.) and Kaila Abrams (Westfield, Mass.) en route to the 21-5 victory.

Christian fueled the Blazers offense with a career-high five goals, while Soucia, Tuechler and Richard added three goals and an assist each. Vurno logged a career-high six assists, while McNiff and Santiago-Sullivan scored two goals apiece.

Lemek netted three goals for the Blue Jays, while Thai and Eberhardt notched one goal apiece in the loss.

The Blazers controlled the shot column, 33-11, and the draw control battle, 20-7, during the game. Elms senior Meeghan O'Connor (Fall River, Mass.) made five saves in the win, while Blue Jays junior Emily Bourassa (Bristol, Conn.) stopped a game-high eight shots.

The Blazers returned to the field for their regular season finale at Rhode Island College Friday at 4:00 p.m. Saint Joseph travels to Lasell for a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) contest Wednesday at 4:00 p.m.

ELMS LACROSSE