NEWTON, Mass. (11/8/16) -- The Lasell College women's soccer team clinched its seventh straight NCAA Tournament berth after winning yet another Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) championship this past weekend.
Now, as Lasell takes it to the national stage again, a familiar foe awaits,: Amherst College.
Saturday's opening contest kicks off at 11:00 a.m. from Hitchcock Field in Amherst, Mass., while Swarthmore College and Misericordia University travel from Pennsylvania to clash in the other regional semifinal.
The Lasers are in the midst of their finest season in program history, entering the NCAA Tournament with an 18-2-1 record and riding an 18-game winning streak. At present, only four other NCAA Division III schools have win streaks equal to or longer than Lasell's 18-gamer as Trinity (Texas) has a perfect 20-0 record this season, Wisconsin-Whitewater and Hardin-Simmons are one-loss teams with 19-game streaks running, and William Smith is 18-0.
Lasell scored a 2-1 win over third-seeded Albertus Magnus in come-from-behind fashion to win its seventh GNAC title in a row on Saturday at Taylor Field. Down 1-0 at halftime, sophomore Sabrina Morais (Arlington, Mass.) and senior Megan Cullen (Amesbury, Mass.) both struck for second-half goals to lift the Lasers to the victory.
Amherst enters its sixth straight NCAA Tournament and 16th overall with a 15-2-1 record. The Purple & White earned a 2-1 win over Trinity on Sunday, their 12th straight, to take the NESCAC championship for the first time since 2011.
Lasell will face a tough challenge in the four-time NESCAC champions, but the school's only NCAA Tournament win came against Amherst back in 2012. The Lasers beat Simmons for their third straight GNAC title that year, and advanced to the NCAA Second Round before falling to Brandeis.
For the Lasers, Cullen leads the GNAC with 47 points on the season, while her 21 goals are tied for the top mark with St. Joseph's (Maine) sophomore Haley DaGraca, the league's Offensive Player of the Year. Seven of Cullen's goals have been game-winners.
Cullen was one of four Lasers named to the All-GNAC First Team on Monday, joining Co-Defensive Player of the Year Mack Kingman (East Bridgewater, Mass.), and sophomores Carly Zdanek (Newton, N.J.) and Erika Badger (Scituate, Mass.). Kingman also earned GNAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player honors.
Junior goalkeeper Sarah LaClair (Belchertown, Mass.) was named to the Second Team, while senior Devon Day (Hartland, Vt.) and sophomore Sabrina Morais garnered Third Team honors at midfield.
LaClair ranks second in the GNAC with a 0.62 goals-against average and .854 save percentage as she enters NCAA postseason play having allowed no more than one goal in four straight contests and five of her last six, while pitching seven shutouts.
Like Lasell, the Purple & White erased a halftime deficit to win its conference title by a 2-1 score. Senior Emily Hester (Washington, D.C.) won Sunday's title game with an 85th-minute goal, her seventh of the season and 17th point. Junior Hannah Guzzi (Southborough, Mass.) leads Amherst with 15 goals and 34 points, while ranking second in the NESCAC with 1.89 points per game. As a team, Amherst's 40 total goals in 18 games (2.22 per contest) rank second in the NESCAC.
In net, Amherst also has one of the NESCAC's best in sophomore Chelsea Cutler. The Westport, Conn., native has surrendered just 11 goals in 17 games, while four of her 13 wins have come in shutout fashion.
The winners of Saturday's contests will meet on Sunday, November 13. Swarthmore is 14-3-0 and qualified for the NCAA Tournament with an at-large bid, while Misericordia won the Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom automatic bid and stands 17-3-0.
