NEWTON, Mass. (3/4/14) – The Lasell College women's lacrosse team dropped their season opener, 18-12, to the visiting Engineers of MIT on Tuesday afternoon at Grellier Field. MIT improved to 2-0 on the season while Lasell fell to 0-1.
Bridget Doherty (Franklin, Mass.) recorded a hat-trick for Lasell while Britney Wuorio (Bolton, Mass.), Caitlyn Brecher (Cheshire, Conn.) and Ashlee Pechulis (Westfield, Mass.) each tallied two goals and one assist in the loss. Lisi Anczok (Buffalo, N.Y.) scored one while collecting a team-high six draw controls along with a pair of groundballs and two caused turnovers. Alexa Katsigianis (Amherst, N.H.) made 12 saves in the contest including eight in the opening half to keep Lasell within striking distance over the opening 30 minutes of action.
Kira Schott and Hannah Levy each netted six goals for MIT with Schott snaring a game-high seven draw controls. Isabel Didio added a pair of goals, one assist, four groundballs and a game-high three caused turnovers and Emma Kane added two goals and an assist in the victory. Candice Kaplan stopped seven shots to earn the win between the pipes for the Engineers.
Schott opened the scoring for MIT, finishing a feed from Kane two and a half minutes into the contest, and the Lasers evened the score three minutes later on a Brecher goal from Wuorio. The Lasers took the lead a minute later when Bridget Doherty notched her first goal on an assist from Taylor Dooley (Barnstable, Mass.) but Schott evened the score at 2-2 when she converted a free position shot. Anczok put Lasell back in front and then Levy scored her first of the game for MIT tying the score at 3-3. Schott converted another free position shot and then tallied an unassisted goal in the run of play at the 10 minute mark in the first half to put MIT ahead 5-3. Kane's unassisted goal 30 seconds later made it 6-3, but Lasell responded with three straight goals to tie the score at 6-6 with 6:29 left in the period. MIT put together another three goal spurt to take a 9-6 lead, and Lasell pulled back a goal with 17 seconds remaining in the half when Ashlee Pechulis found a cutting Britney Wuorio to make it 9-7 at the intermission.
Toni Minelli (Newington, Conn.) scored for Lasell a minute into the second half to cut the hosts deficit to one, and the MIT's Levy and Lasell's Pechulis traded goals making it 10-9 with 23 minutes left in the contest. MIT then used a five goal run, including a pair of free position goals to distance themselves from Lasell, opening up a 15-9lead with just over 11 minutes to play. The two teams traded goals over the final minutes for the 18-12 final margin.
Lasell will head to Curry College on Thursday March 6th for a 4:00 p.m. matchup with the Colonels before returning home to take on Wellesley on Saturday March 8th at 12:00 p.m.