DARTMOUTH, Mass. - Powered by an 11-goal opening half and tallies from six different scorers, the UMass Dartmouth women's lacrosse team posted a 21-8 victory over Vermont State University Castleton in Little East Conference action on Saturday afternoon at Cressy Field. The Corsairs improve to 7-3 and are now 1-1 in conference play, while the Spartans move to 1-9 with a 1-1 LEC mark. Today's contest was not only the Corsairs Game of the Week, but the women's lacrosse teams awareness game for Morgan's Message.
Prior to today's game, the Corsairs wore special t-shirts during warm-ups with the organization's logo, along with spreading information throughout the game via pamphlets and public address announcements in honor of Morgan Rodgers, a former Duke University lacrosse student-athlete who died tragically in July 2019 after battling mental health struggles. Morgan's Message was created by her family and former teammates with the mission to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health, normalize the conversations about mental health and ensure that mental health is treated equally to physical health for all student-athletes.
The visitors opened the game's scoring less than two minutes in as sophomore midfielder Renny Cota drove one past UMass Dartmouth keeper
Kelsie Couto for the 1-0 lead at 13:46. The Corsairs broke through at 10:33 as senior captain and midfielder
Melanny Sanchez Alvarez fired in a pass from classmate and attack
Hannah Mitus to tie it up. The home team wasted little time taking the lead as goals from rookie attack
Jennifer Lins and senior midfielder and captain
Widline Thomas within a minute of one another, opened a 3-1 lead for the Corsairs.
VTSU Castleton didn't back down, tying the game once more before the end of the first quarter as rookie midfielder Gianna Geraci and sophomore middie Megan Ward each scored to make it a 3-3 contest. Second quarter action was sparked in the Corsairs favor as Sanchez Alvarez dropped in back-to-back goals to widen the margin to 5-3. Mitus then scored on the man-up off a feed from Lins, while rookie midfielder
Maddy Allen and Thomas each make it an 8-3 game with 4:33 left in the second stanza.
The Spartans got a goal from fifth year attack Tien Connor, but two straight goals from Allen and a tally by rookie midfielder
Lily Nees sent UMass Dartmouth into halftime with the 11-4 advantage.
Out of the intermission, the Spartans got one back as senior midfielder Kimberly McCarthy found the back of the net, but it was a 5-0 run for the Corsairs to close out the third quarter as Allen, Thomas, Sanchez Alvarez and Nees all scored for a 16-5 lead heading into the final frame.
Ward and Cota each answered for the visitors to open the fourth quarter, but Allen, Thomas and Sanchez Alvarez all tallied, including two on the man-up, making it a 19-7 game with 6:37 to play. Cota added a man-down goal, but the Corsairs closed out the scoring as Sanchez Alvarez knocked in her sixth of the game and Nees also scored.
Overall, the Corsairs owned a 38-15 margin in shots, along with a 21-11 advantage in draw controls. UMass Dartmouth, which held a 24-23 edge in ground balls, went 15-21 on the clear, while the Spartans were 13-20 on the clear.
Sanchez Alvarez added six goals and two assists for the Corsairs, adding four ground balls, four caused turnovers and a game-best 11 draw controls. Thomas led all scorers with 10 points on four goals and a game-best six assists, while Allen also recorded six goals - adding four ground balls and eight draw controls. Nees had three goals with a game-best six caused turnovers, in addition to six ground balls and a draw control. Lins chipped in with a goal and two assists, while Mitus added a goal and an assist. In goal, Couto earned the win, recording four saves.
For the Spartans, Cota had three goals, while Ward added two goals with a game-high eight ground balls to go along with two caused turnovers and three draw controls. Geraci added a goal and an assist as well, while sophomore midfielder Phoebe Loomis had six ground balls, four caused turnovers and two draw controls. In goal, sophomore Liv Cormier recorded six stops.
UMass Dartmouth returns to action on Thursday with a 2pm game against UMass Boston on the campus of Mount Ida College.Â
