Women's Lacrosse Falls to Worcester State in Overtime, 16-15

By Jim Fenton

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University women's lacrosse team fell to 1-1 in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference with an overtime loss.

Senior Molly Witkowski (Greenville, N.Y.) scored just 42 seconds into the extra session to give Worcester State University a 16-15 win over the Bears at Mazzaferro Field Saturday afternoon.

BSU was in front, 10-7, at halftime and held a 13-11 lead going into the fourth period.

After the Lancers went ahead, 15-14, Bears senior Katie Lamothe (Dartmouth, Mass.) forced OT where Witkowski gave Worcester State the win.

BSU is 3-8 overall while the Lancers are 7-4 and 2-0 in the MASCAC.

Prior to the start of the game, the Bears held a ceremonial draw at midfield in honor of BSU assistant men's basketball coach, women's lacrosse referee and field hockey official, Brian Ferris. Brian is battling back from a serious injury he suffered late in November of 2025 and was in attendance today to set up the ceremonial draw.

Sophomore Sophia Fleurent (Fairhaven, Mass.) scored a career-best five goals and added an assist for the Bears while senior Meredith Sylvia (Dartmouth, Mass.) had four goals and an assist.

Sylvia, who leads the team with 23 goals, also filled the stat sheet with eight ground balls, three draw controls and eight caused turnovers including the 100th of her career. She became the fourth player in program history to record 100 caused turnovers.

Fleurent, who has a career-high 21 goals, added a team-best six draw controls.

Senior Shannon Donahue (Dennis, Mass.) scored six goals for the Lancers and has 25 this season.

Witkowski added three goals, upping her season total to 26, to go with two assists while senior Mckayla Fisher (Peabody, Mass.) also had three goals and two assists.

Fleurent and Donahue each scored twice to make it 2-2 with six minutes left in the first period.

Worcester State took a 4-2 lead on goals by freshman Fallon Lozano (Upton, Mass.) and Fisher, but the Bears tied it by the end of the period on two goals by Sylvia.

BSU outscored Worcester State, 6-3, in the second period, getting two goals each from Fleurent and Sylvia and one from junior Erin Henn (Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) and sophomore Kallie Rose (Dartmouth, Mass.).

The Lancers had goals from Donahue, junior Meghan Bowen (Westfield, Mass.) and Witkowski in the period.

Down 10-7 at the break, Worcester State pulled even, 11-11, with Witkowski opening the second-half scoring, Donahue netting two goals and junior Madigan Kelley (Bourne, Mass.) getting a goal while sophomore Taylor Carter (Walpole, Mass.) scored for BSU.

The Bears went back on top, 13-11, on goals by freshman Kate Fitzpatrick (Methuen, Mass.) and Fleurent 1:20 apart in the final two minutes of the third period.

Worcester State tied it 3:19 into the final period on goals from Fisher and freshmn Meghan Heffernan (Westminster, Mass.).

BSU sophomore Lizzy Deacon (Amesbury, Mass.) and Fisher exchanged goals 36 seconds apart to make it 14-14 before Donahue, assisted by junior Kerry Brown (Billerica, Mass.), put the Lancers ahead with 6:33 remaining.

Lamothe's tying goal came from in front with 2:06 to go, but Witkowski needed less than a minute to finish the game in OT.

Worcester State sophomore goalkeeper Cadence Oleniak (Hampton, N.H.) made six saves for the win.

BSU sophomore Sara Skaff (Lowell, Mass.) started and had eight saves in 49:01. Junior Gianna Scarpelli (Medford, Mass.) played 11:41, making one save. Scarpelli came on with 11:41 remaining following Heffernan's goal which tied the game at 13-13. Skaff re-entered the game to start the overtime period.

Worcester State held the edge in shots (28-26) and shots on goal (25-21) in addition to draw controls (19-14) while BSU had the advantage in groundballs (21-16). Kelley led all players with eight draw controls while Fisher tallied six.

The Bears have a non-conference game at Roger Williams on Wednesday afternoon at 4 p.m.

The Lancers will host Western Connecticut State Wednesday at 5 p.m.