Women's Lacrosse Wins Fourth Straight as Gonsalves Nets 100th Goal

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- Senior Camryn Gonsalves (East Bridgewater, Mass.) netted her 100th collegiate goal as the Bridgewater State University women's lacrosse team earned their fourth straight win with a 16-9 victory over visiting University of New England on Friday afternoon at Mazzaferro Field.

The Bears improve to 4-0 to start the season while the visiting Nor'easters fall to 0-2. The last time a BSU women's lacrosse team opened the season with four straight wins was in 2016.

Entering the game with 99 career goals, Gonsalves waisted no time to reach the milestone as she converted off an assist from junior Meredith Sylvia (South Dartmouth, Mass.) just 22 seconds into the contest.

After senior Morgan White (Rochester, N.H.) knotted the scored at 1-1 at the 11:32 mark of the opening period, the Bears reeled off four straight goals over the final ten minutes of the session to open up a 5-1 lead. Sylvia, Gonsalves, senior Katy Shaw (Centerville, Mass.) and freshman Lizzy Deacon (Amesbury, Mass.) all found the back of the net during the run with Sylvia also assisting on Gonsalves' second strike of the afternoon. 

Sophomore Molly Henderson (Scarborough, Maine) scored off the free position to cut the deficit to 5-2 with 8:07 remaining in the second quarter. Bridgewater, however, answered with three straight tallies including back-to-back free position markers from Shaw and McIntyre as well as a McIntyre strike off a feed from Shaw.

The Bears, who outscored the Nor'easters 8-6 in a tightly-contested second half, would maintain at least a five-goal lead the rest of the way.

Sylvia paced the hosts with four goals and two assists on the afternoon to go along with two ground balls and a game-high eight draw controls.

McIntyre checked in with four goals, three ground balls and five draw controls, while Gonsalves potted three goals and added three ground balls and Shaw contributed two goals and a pair of helpers.

Junior Sydney Balotin (Syracuse, N.Y.) led the way for UNE with four goals and an assist as well as three ground balls and four draw controls. White finished with two goals, an assist and six draw controls.

Bridgewater held a 35-25 shot advantage for the game as well as a slight 15-14 edge in draw controls. Ground balls were 23-16 in favor of the Bears.

BSU freshman goalkeeper Sara Skaff (Lowell, Mass.) made four saves to pick up her fourth win of the season. Sophomore Jenna Trafford (South Portland, Maine) turned aside ten shots in the setback for the Nor'easters.

UThe Bears are off until next Friday (Mar. 7) afternoon when they travel to the University of Southern Maine for a one o'clock game with the Huskies. The Nor'easters host Salem State University on Wednesday (Mar. 5) afternoon at four o'clock.

Notes: Bridgewater holds a 9-4 lead in the all-time series with UNE including a 4-2 mark at home. The two teams first met back in 2008....Gonsalves now has 102 goals in 53 career games at Bridgewater State....McIntyre has 230 draw controls, fifth on the Bears' all-time list trailing BSU Hall of Famer Shannon Manning (231), Taylor Clancy (232), Victoria McDonough (239) and BSU Hall of Famer Lauren Geary (605).