Written by: Matt Cermola
NORTHFIELD, VT- The Lasell College women's lacrosse team lost to Norwich University, 12-8, on Sunday afternoon in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Championship title game.
Despite trailing for a majority of the game, Lasell scored to pull within one, 9-8, with 12:30 to go. However, Norwich would score thee consecutive goals to end Lasell's GNAC title hopes.
The Lasers tallied the first goal of the game when Ashley Slattery (Weymouth, MA) beat Cadet keeper Kellie Pickel (Montpelier, VT) just under four minutes into the game. This would be the only lead of the game for the Lasers.
With 24:07 left in the first half, a Suzanne Whitaker (Chelmsford, MA) goal began a 13 minute stretch that would net four consecutive Norwich goals past Lasell keeper Kristen Coderre (Monson,MA), putting the Cadet's up 4-1.
Lasell would respond when freshmen Bridget Ryan (Chatham, NJ) and Britney Wuorio(Bolton, MA) scored back-to-back goals to put the Lasers down 4-3 as they headed into the second half.
The second half would begin with Tina Canavan (Stonington, CT) scoring past Pickel to tie the game at 4-all.
Once again the Cadet's went on a scoring run, this time with three consecutive goals in just over a minute, including the second of the game each for Kacey Abbriano (Hicksville, NY) and Grace Fitzpatrick (Falmouth, Maine), giving the Cadet's a 7-4 lead.
Lasell would play strong throughout the middle of the second half scoring four of the next six goals, including Wourio's second of the game which put the Lasers down just one with over 12 minutes to go.
As they had all game, Norwich scored when they had to. The Cadet's finished the game with three consecutive goals past Coderre to take the title game, two of which were netted by Fitzpatrick, giving her five for the game.
Norwich took more then double the amount of shots than the Lasers, while Lasell turned the ball over three times as often, 18-6. The Cadet's were also superior on ground balls, almost tripling the Lasers.
Canavan, Slattery, and Wourio led the Lasers in scoring with two apiece.
The Lasers finish a successful season at 11-6 overall, and a second place finish in the GNAC.