NEWTON, Mass. (9/20/14) – The Lasell College field hockey team fell, 5-2 to visiting Johnson and Wales University on Saturday afternoon in their Great Northeast Athletic Conference opener. The Lasers dropped to 2-5 on the year and 0-1 in the league while the Wildcats improved to 3-4 in 2014 and 1-0 in GNAC games.

Briana Longo (Stamford, Conn.) and Leah Sullivan (Mansfield, Mass.) each scored their first career goals for Lasell in the loss while Taylor Hulitzky Medway, Mass.) added an assist. Denise Landry (New Milford, Conn.) made a pair of saves in the cage while taking the loss.

Jessica Kocur (Mattapoisett, Mass.) scored twice and assisted on another goal for Johnson and Wales, Amanda Takach (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) and Giovanni Ciavardoni (Latham, N.Y.) each chipped in a goal and an assist while and Courtney McTeague (Saugus, Mass.) added a score of her own. Shannon Yoder (Boyertown, Pa.) stopped four shots to earn the win in goal for the Wildcats.

Ciavardoni opened the scoring for Johnson and Wales with an unassisted goal in the ninth minute of play, then helped JWU take a 2-0 lead when she set-up Kocur's first goal in the 26^th minute. The Wildcats quickly made it 3-0 just three minutes later when Courtney McTeague got on the end of a Takach cross and knocked it home. Takach then converted following a penalty corner with just under two minutes remaining in the half, sending the visitors into the break with a 4-0 lead.

JWU added one more goal in the opening minutes of the second half when Ali King (Kerhonkson, N.Y.) found Kocur for her second goal of the game, making it 5-0. Lasell scored twice in the final 10 minutes when Briana Longo and Leah Sullivan each scored on rebounds in front of the net, but it wasn't enough as JWU earned the 5-2 victory.

Johnson and Wales will return to action on Thursday September 25^th when they host Daniel Webster College at 4:00 p.m. while Lasell visits Salve Regina on Wednesday September 24^th for a 7:00 p.m. contest.