WELLESLEY, Mass - Despite a second-half surge from Bridgewater State, the Wellesley College lacrosse team picked up a 19-12 win over the visiting Bears on Thursday afternoon in Wellesley. The win improves the Blue to 3-1 while Bridgewater State falls to 0-3 on the season.
The Blue controlled the game early, getting on the board within the first :33 seconds on a goal from Kate Cushing (Danvers, MA). Wellesley increased the lead to 4-0 by the 20-minute mark, off of scores from Caitlin Meeker (Columbia, MD), Jenny Holland (Bethesda, MD) and Meredith Roy (Merrimack, NH).
Bridgewater State broke through on the scoring column when Katie DeMaio (Port Jefferson Station, NY) scored off a Courtney Lennon (Medfield, MA) assist that narrowed the Wellesley lead to 4-1. After a second goal from the Blue's Holland made it 5-1, the Bears' DeMaio assisted a Kristin White (Pelham, MA) goal to set the score at 5-2 with 11:40 to play in the half.
Wellesley dominated the rest of the first stanza, scoring six unanswered goals to take an 11-2 lead at the break.
The Bears opened the second half with a goal from Jenny Jones (Framingham, MA) that cut the lead to 11-3 in favor of Wellesley. However, two more scores from the Blue's Roy and Holland increased the Wellesley advantage to 13-3.
Bridgewater State turned on the pressure late in the second half, narrowing the Wellesley lead to 16-8 with 15:05 to play. After three more Wellesley scores, the Bears scored four out of the final five goals of the game to make things interesting, but it wasn't enough as the Blue held on for the 19-12 victory.
Leading the way for the visitors was DeMaio who recorded five points off of four goals and one assist. Lennon scored three times while adding an assist while Shannon Manning (Framingham, MA) finished with two goals and one assist. Rounding out the offense for Bridgewater State, Jones notched two goals and an assist while White scored a goal.
Also for Bridgewater State, Sarah Pimental (Acushnet, MA) picked up a team-high four ground balls while Jones had four draw controls and Kiera Garvey (Chelmsford, MA) caused three turnovers. In goal for the Bears, Meghan Griffin (Billerica, MA) recorded 15 saves.
For Wellesley, Roy had six goals and three assists for a career-high nine points. Holland and Morrow each had eight points, with Holland scoring five times with three assists and Morrow scoring four times with four assists. Briana Roberge (Bow, NH) picked up a five-point game, scoring once with four helpers while Meeker scored twice and Cushing added one goal.
Loretta White (Northampton, MA) and Roy each had six draw controls in the game while Roy, Katie Saylor (San Diego, CA) and Holland added three caused turnovers apiece. Katie Bourque had a game-high five ground balls. Mary Mattia (Atlanta, GA) had 11 saves in goal for Wellesley, included eight in the first half.
Up next for Bridgewater State, the Bears travel to Rhode Island College for a 12:00 pm game on Saturday. Wellesley is off until Monday when they play a 4:00pm game at Drew University.