DARTMOUTH, Mass. – The UMass Dartmouth women's lacrosse team were bested by Keene State College in Little East Conference (LEC) action on Wednesday night from Cressy Field. The Corsairs are now 9-5 overall and 3-2 in conference play with the loss while the Owls move to a 4-2 Little East mark.
The Corsairs took an early 2-0 edge thanks to a goal apiece from sophomore attacker
Maddy Allen and first year attacker
Claire Altshuler. Less than a minute after, Lola Varricchione cut UMass Dartmouth's lead in half with her first score of the game to make it 3-1. The Corsairs notched their third goal of the night at the 3:13 mark after Allen scored from the free position spot.
First year attacker
Jenny Lipanovich got the offense going in the second quarter with her score off the helper from Allen to put UMass Dartmouth up 4-1. The Owls soon responded by tallying three unanswered goals to knot the game up at 4-apiece. Lipanovich gave the home team a brief one-goal edge with her second goal of the night, but Anna Maccarini swiftly answered with a goal to even the score at 5-5. With 3:12 left in the first half, Lipanovich buried the ball into the back of the net from the free position spot to give UMass Dartmouth a 6-5 lead heading into the break.
Keene State tied the game up for the third time in the game after Chase Gengras scored on the man advantage in the opening minutes of the third period. First year goalie Kiera Bushey made three crucial stops for the Corsairs before Lipanovich put the squad ahead 7-6 at the 8:44 mark. Riley Devine leveled the game at 7-apiece with her score, but a late score by graduate student
Kyra Lyons gave the Corsairs an 8-7 edge entering the final period of the contest. The Owls took control in the fourth quarter, netting four unanswered goals to seal their comeback win by a final score of 11-8.
Lipanovich led the team with a game-high four goals for four points posting 7-of-8 shots on-goal while also recording five draw controls, two ground balls, and a caused turnover. Allen netted two goals and one assist for three points and scoped up two ground balls and caused a pair of turnovers. Altshuler recorded one goal and two assists for three points to go along with three ground balls while Lyons also tallied one goal for the Corsairs. Sophomore
Lily Nees scoped up a team-high five ground balls and won three draw controls.
Bushey picked up the loss in net, moving to 9-5 record, after making 12 stops and allowing 11 goals. Her counterpart registered four saves and allowed eight goals after playing the entire game for the Owls.
UMass Dartmouth will host Western Connecticut State University for their next league matchup on Saturday, April 19 starting at 1:00 p.m. from Cressy Field.
