Women's Lacrosse Drops 16-10 Decision to Plymouth State

By Jim Fenton

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The five-game winning streak for the Bridgewater State University lacrosse team ended Tuesday night.

Senior Julia Donovan (Antrim, N.H.) scored seven goals to lead Plymouth State University to a 16-10 non-conference victory over the Bears at Mazzaferro Field.

BSU (9-2) suffered its first loss since March 7 when it was defeated by Southern Maine.

The Panthers improved to 7-2 and won for the 10th time in the last 12 meetings with the Bears.Plymouth State owns a 27-10 lead in the series with BSU.

The Bears fell behind, 5-1, after one period and trailed, 8-3, at halftime, then were down, 12-6, going into the final period.

BSU got as close as four in the last 15 minutes.

Senior Camryn Gonsalves (East Bridgewater, Mass.) led the Bears with four goals and four assists. Gonsalves now has 199 points (126 G, 73 A) in her career. She also moved into tenth place on the Bears' all-time assist list.

Graduate student Savannah Herrington (Kinnelon, N.J.) added three goals for BSU while senior Erin McIntyre (Tewksbury, Mass.) notched two goals and a helper to go along with five draw controls.

In addition to the seven goals from Donovan, who has 31 goals in nine games, Plymouth State received three goals and an assist each from graduate student Elle Moshier (Stratford, Conn.) and senior Maddie Hunt (Littleton, Mass.).

Moshier opened the scoring 2:07 into the game with Gonsalves tying it 1:03 later.

Plymouth State then scored the next four goals for the 5-1 lead after a period, Donovan getting three of them and freshman Gracie Menicci (Pepperell, Mass.) adding another.

Herrington drew BSU within 5-2 with 11:03 left in the half, but two goals by Hunt and one by Donovan moved Plymouth State in front, 8-2, with 8:56 remaining in the half.

McIntyre netted a goal with 2:48 to make it 8-3 at the break.

Gonsalves scored again 34 seconds into the second half, but goals by Hunt, freshman Claire Joyce (Braintree, Mass.) and Donovan in just over two minutes pushed the lead to 11-4.

McIntyre and Gonsalves got the Bears within 11-6, but Donovan scored with 38 seconds to go to make it 12-6 entering the final period.

Herrington scored twice within 22 seconds early in the fourth period to get the deficit down to 12-8, and Moshier and Gonsalves exchanged goals.

Graduate student Megan Gaspa (Laconia, N.H.) of Plymouth State and BSU junior Meredith Sylvia (Dartmouth, Mass.) had goals to make it 14-10 with 5:15 remaining, but Moshier and Donovan put the game away with goals in the final 4:21.

For Sylvia the goal marked her 100th collegiate point.

The two teams combined for 76 shots in the contest with Plymouth holding a 40-36 shot advantage. The Panthers were just 3-for-11 on free position attempts and the Bears were 1-for-4.

Senior Margie Black (Longmeadow, Mass.) recorded the win for the Panthers, making 12 saves, while freshman Sara Skaff (Lowell, Mass.) matched her career-high with 15 stops for BSU.

The Panthers held a 17-13 edge in draw controls while ground balls were even at 25 apiece.

BSU struggled on the clear successfully converting just 14 of 25 clear attempts.

The game took place on Excel/Best Buddies Night.

The Bears are home against Friday night, facing Westfield State at 7 p.m. in the MASCAC matchup.

Plymouth State will play the University of Massachusetts Boston on Saturday at noon.