Women's Lacrosse Rallies for 14-11 Win Over Southern Maine

GORHAM, Maine -- The Bridgewater State University women's lacrosse team rallied from a four-goal deficit as the visiting Bears posted a 14-11 victory over the University of Southern Maine on Saturday afternoon at Hannaford Field.

The Bears improve to 3-5 on the season, while the huskies fall to 1-5.

Junior attack Savannah Herrington (Kinnelon, N.J.) paced Bridgewater State with a game-high five goals, while sophomore midfielder Erin McIntyre (Tewksbury, Mass.) tallied two goals and an assist, and sophomore attack Camryn Gonsalves (East Bridgewater, Mass.) and senior midfielder Katie O'Brien (Pembroke, Mass.) notched two goals apiece. The Bears also received a goal and a pair of helpers from senior midfielder Delaney Langton (Scituate, R.I.) as well as a game-best three assists from freshman attack Katie Lamothe (Dartmouth, Mass.).

Freshman midfielder Cierra Hill (Pembroke, N.H.) and sophomore attack Emily Cloutier (Brunswick, Maine) potted three goals apiece to lead the way for Southern Maine. Graduate attack Rachel Shanks (Naples, Maine) and freshman attack Maddie Kinney (Topsham, Maine) each contributed a pair of goals for the Huskies.

Trailing 8-4 with just over seven minutes remaining in the second quarter, the Bears closed out the half with a four-goal outburst to even the score heading into the break. Graduate attack Katie Swart (Bridgewater, Mass.) started the rally with a player-advantage marker off a nice feed from graduate midfielder Hayley Carron (Hopedale, Mass.). A free position strike by Herrington made it a two-goal deficit before Langton set up goals by Herrington and McIntyre in the final 30 seconds of the period to even the score at 8-8.

McIntyre converted off an assist from sophomore attack Melanie McClay (Plymouth, Mass.) to open the scoring in the third quarter and give the Bears their first lead since early in the contest. An unassisted tally by freshman midfielder Meredith Sylvia (South Dartmouth, Mass.) made it a two-goal BSU cushion (10-8) with 6:37 remaining in the period. Southern Maine got one back with Shanks finding the back of the net with 3:46 left to play in the third to make it a 10-9 game.

The score remained that way until Hill converted off the free position to knot game at 10-10 with 4:32 remaining in the final period. O'Brien and Kinney exchanged goals just 17 seconds apart as the game remained tied with 3:43 left to play. Less than 30 seconds later, O'Brien buried what proved to be the game-winner off a pass from Lamothe. Lamothe set up Gonsalves 43 seconds later to give the Bears a two-goal lead and Herrington capped off the scoring with 1:35 showing on the board.

Bridgewater held a 17-11 edge in draw controls while Southern Maine finished with a 30-29 shot advantage. The Bears went 3-for-4 on free position shots and converted 17 of 21 clear attempts. The Huskies went just 3-for-8 from the free position and 16 of 20 on clear attempts.

BSU junior goalkeeper Laura Giovaniello (Walpole, Mass.) made nine save to record her second win of the season. Junior netminder Cece Racine (Lewiston, Maine) turned aside 11 shots between the pipes for Southern Maine.

In upcoming action, the Bears travel to Wellesley College on Wednesday evening to take on the Blue at six o'clock. The Huskies entertain the University of Maine-Farmington on Tuesday afternoon at four.

Notes: The two teams have met just three times with Bridgewater State winning each of the three contests. Prior to this afternoon, the last time the Bears and the Huskies played in Gorham was in 1976, a 13-3 Bridgewater State victory.