Newton, MA – The Lasell College women's lacrosse team defeated Wellesley College in a triple overtime thriller, 16-15 in the Lasers home opener. Ashley Slattery (Weymouth, MA) found the back of the net on a free position shot with 1:25 on the clock to give Lasell their first win of the season. The victory improved Lasell's record to 1-1 on the year, while Wellesley fell to 0-3 with the loss.
Ashley Slattery scored a career high eight goals, including all three Lasell goals in extra time while Brittany Wuorio (Bolton, MA) tallied three goals including the game tying goal with under a minute to play in regulation to force overtime. The Wellesley trio of Claire Canty (E. Rockaway, NY), Natalie Gruet (Acton, MA) and Meredith Roy (Merrimack, NH) each scored four goals for the visitors who out-shot Lasell 40-32 on the afternoon.
Wellesley got off to a fast start, opening up a 6-2 lead with 9:05 to play in the opening half. Gruet scored three times during the run for Wellesley, and Claire Canty scored twice. A pair of Slattery goals sandwiched around a goal from Bridget Ryan (Chatham, NJ) helped Lasell pull to within 6-5, but Meredith Roy responded with a goal as the half was ending, sending Wellesley into the break with a 7-5 advantage.
The teams traded the first four goals of the opening half, as the visitors held their two goal lead at 9-7 with 23:51 to play. Wellesley scored three of the next four goals, and held a 12-8 edge on the Lasers with 11:18 remaining in the contest. Wuorio helped ignite a string of three straight goals for Lasell, when she found the back of the net on a feed from Slattery with 8:48 in the second half. Caitlyn Brecher (Cheshire, CT) scored the third goal in the run for Lasell, drawing the hosts to within one at 12-11 with 4:35 left in the period.
Wellesley controlled the draw after Brecher's goal and burned nearly three minutes off the clock before Meredith Roy tallied her fourth goal of the day, putting Wellesley up 13-11 with 1:38 on the clock. Wuorio found a cutting Erin Gertonson (Bayport, NY) for a goal to draw Lasell with one, setting the stage for Wuorio's game-tying goal with 14 seconds to play.
Slattery scored twice in the first overtime period putting the hosts ahead 15-13 heading into the second three minute overtime. After being held scoreless for the opening 3:50 of the second overtime, Wellesley scored twice less than 10 second apart to force the game into a third sudden-victory period and setting the stage for Slattery's heroics.
Alexa Katsigianis (Amherst, NH) stopped 15 shots, including holding Wellesley to 0-5 on free position shots to pick up her first collegiate win for Lasell. Tori Hysko (Reisterstown, MD) saved 7 shots for Wellesley in picking up the loss. Wellesley will return to action on Wednesday March 14th, when the travel to Simmons College, while Lasell will host Colby-Sawyer College in a 4pm match-up at Grellier Field on Tuesday March 13th.