Newton, Mass. (4.26.13) – The Lasell College women's lacrosse team defeated visiting St. Joseph's College (Maine) 21-10 in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference semifinals to advance to the GNAC championship game for the third consecutive year. Lasell improved their record to 14-3 on the year, while St. Joseph's fell to 11-7 with the loss.
Britney Wuorio (Bolton, Mass.) tallied four goals and five assists for Lasell and Ashley Slattery (Weymouth, Mass.) added four goals and four assists in the victory. Rebecca Stanton (Agawam, Mass.) played a great all-around game, scoring five goals while scooping up six groundballs and grabbing nine draw controls, Bridget Doherty (Franklin, Mass.) added four goals and Ashlee Pechulis (Westfield, Mass.) netted a pair of scores for the Lasers. Sammy Long (Staten Island, N.Y.) stopped seven shots while earning the victory in net for Lasell.
Cassie Diplock (Augusta, Maine) paced the Monks attack with three goals, Mary Leasure (South Portland, Maine) and Kat Gadbois (Scarborough, Maine) each netted a pair of scores for St. Joseph's. Anneka Adame (San Diego, Calif.) chipped in with one goal and one assist, while Krystal Walsh (Springvale, Maine) dished out a pair of assists in the contest. Haley Nason (Saco, Maine) made 10 saves while taking the loss in goals for the Monks.
Ashley Slattery started the scoring for Lasell when she took a feed from Britney Wuorio and found the back of the net 1:49 into the opening half. Lasell quickly went ahead 3-0 on unassisted goals by Rebecca Stanton and Wuorio with 26:22 left in the first half. Mary Leasure scored to get the Monks on the board, and after a Lasell goal by Ashlee Pechulis the Monks used a pair of goals from Cassie Diplock to cut the margin to 4-3 in favor of Lasell.
The Lasers answered with four straight goals, including a pair of scores by Slattery sandwiched between goals by Stanton and Bridget Doherty to take an 8-3 lead. A pair of scores by St. Joseph's Gadbois bookended a Stanton goal for Lasell to make the score 9-5 with 12:11 on the clock in the first half.
The hosts answered by running off six straight scores to take a 15-5 lead before a goal by the Monks Leasure with five seconds remaining made it 15-6 at the half.
Lasell put the game away in the early part of the second half, starting the period with four unanswered scores to go on top 19-6. Lizzie Calnan (Westport, Mass.) scored for the Monks with 10:18 remaining to make it 19-7, before Wuorio closed the Lasell scoring with a pair of goals with just over seven minutes to play to take a 21-7 lead. St. Joseph's scored three times in the game's final five minutes to make it a 21-10 final.
Lasell will host Simmons in the GNAC Championship game on Sunday April 28th at 1:00 p.m. at Grellier Field, after the Sharks advanced to the final with a 9-8 overtime victory over Norwich University.