NEWTON, Mass. (9/26/13) – The Lasell College women's field hockey team grabbed their fourth victory of the season, knocking off visiting Johnson and Wales University, 3-0 at Grellier Field. Johnson and Wales slid to 2-8 overall with the loss, while the Lasers improved to 4-5 for the 2013 campaign.
Nikita Soares (Westport, Mass.), Courtney Braman (Gardner, Mass.) and Kristine Jackson (Medway, Mass.) each scored for the Lasers in the victory. Lasell outshot the visitors 21-9 for the game, and Wildcats goalkeeper Jaclyn Lyons (Hillsborough, N.J.) made 11 saves in the game. Taylor Sheehan (Brewster, Mass.) made three saves while earning her fourth won of the season in goal for Lasell.
Soares put Lasell in front in the 16th minute of the game, collecting a rebound off a shot by Jackson and driving a shot past Lyons to make it 1-0 in favors of the Lasers. The hosts threatened a couple of more times over the remainder of the half, but failed to score, taking their 1-0 lead into the break.
Johnson and Wales had a pair of opportunities early in the second half, but saw their chances to equalize stopped when Lasell thwarted early chances on penalty corners.
Jackson stretched the Lasers advantage to 2-0 in the 57th minute of action when a shot by Ashley Gleason (Suffield, Conn.) was blocked, but Jackson found space and fired a shot between the keeper and the post. Braman added the Lasers third tally three minutes later when Ainslee Thompson (Allendale, N.J.) fed her a pass on the back side which she calmly finished to give Lasell a 3-0 lead with just over ten minutes to play.
Johnson and Wales continued to push, creating some good chances over the final five minutes of action, including a shot from Rachel Rice (Quakertown, Pa.) that forced Sheehan to make a difficult save to keep the shutout alive.
Johnson and Wales will travel to Simmons College on Saturday September 28th for a 1:30 p.m. tilt, while Lasell will be back in action on Tuesday October 1st, when they host Becker College at 4:00 p.m.
