NEWTON, Mass. (11/4/16) -- The top-seeded Lasell College women's soccer team is set to play for its seventh consecutive Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) championship on Saturday, hosting third-seeded Albertus Magnus College for a 1:00 p.m. kickoff at Taylor Field.
The Lasers enter the championship with a 17-2-1 overall record, having defeated No. 8 University of St. Joseph and No. 4 St. Joseph's College (Maine) by a 7-1 combined score in the first two rounds of postseason play.
Saturday's contest will mark the first postseason meeting between Lasell and Albertus Magnus since the Lasers earned a 4-0 win in the 2014 semifinals en route to beating Emmanuel for their fifth GNAC title. In this year's regular-season meeting on Sept. 28, Lasell pitched a 2-0 shutout.
Lasell has won 17 straight contests since losing to Brandeis and Keene State and tying Johnson & Wales ― the second-place team in the GNAC ― to begin the season. The Lasers' win streak is tied for the second-longest in NCAA Division III.
Albertus is the Lasers' fifth different opponent in seven conference championship games, but the first other than Emmanuel since 2013. Lasell has also played Simmons (twice) and Norwich in title games during its present record-setting stretch.
Junior Casey Meissner (Sandwich, Mass.) posted two goals in Lasell's 5-1 semifinal win, while sophomore Carly Zdanek (Newton, N.J.) netted a goal and an assist. Meissner and Zdanek are two of six Lasell players with double-digit points on the season, a group senior Megan Cullen (Amesbury, Mass.) leads with 45 points, tied for tops in the GNAC.
Cullen has 29 points in her last six games after assisting on Meissner's opening goal against SJC and ranks second in the conference with 87 total shots. Zdanek leads the GNAC with nine assists.
The Monks tied Wednesday's game in the 30th minute, but Lasell finished the game with four unanswered goals and Meissner's classmate Sarah LaClair (Belchertown, Mass.) totaled four saves in her 16th victory of the season. LaClair has allowed just 11 goals all season and sports a 0.60 goals-against average, both the second-best marks in the conference.
Senior Devon Day (Hartland, Vt.) scored the first game-winning goal of her collegiate career and her first tally in four games against the Monks in the 60th minute, while sophomore Morgan Pinksten (Pelham, N.H.) closed the scoring.
Lasell is the GNAC's runaway leader with 3.20 goals per game as a team, while it scored five or more goals in a game six times this season. On the flip side, Albertus has scored has averaged 2.26 goals while allowing the third-fewest (1.08) among the league's 12 teams.
The 11-7-1 Falcons advanced to this point for the first time in program history after squeezing out 1-0 wins over the No. 6 Saints and No. 7 Suffolk to open their tenth GNAC postseason appearance. The win over Suffolk came in double overtime, with senior Taylor Rotella (Milford, Conn.) scoring the game-winning goal.
Senior Danielle Polvan (East Haven, Conn.) leads Albertus with ten goals and 23 points, while no other player on the team has more than 13. Junior Angelina Piccirillo (Naugatuck, Conn.) has scored six goals, tied with Rotella for second-most on the team. All six of Piccirillo's goals have come in GNAC play, while she leads the team with four game-winners. Polvan is the Falcons' all-time leading scorer with 37 goals and 85 points over four years.
Sophomore Lexie Fenn (Oakville, Conn.) made four saves in the AMC goal en route to her fifth clean sheet of the season. Fenn ranks third in the GNAC with a 1.27 goals-against average.
The winner of Saturday's game receives the GNAC's automatic NCAA Tournament bid and will await the NCAA.com Selection Show on Monday, November 7 at 1:30 p.m.
During the game, the Laser Nation student fan club will be selling slices of Pizza from NY Pie for $1. All proceeds will go directly to the family of Peter Eyong, a near and dear Lasell staff member who recently lost his daughter to illness.
Saturday's contest can be viewed live at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/lasell/.
