BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University women's lacrosse team battled back from a three-goal second half deficit as the host Bears edged visiting University of New England, 11-10, on Saturday afternoon at Swenson Field.
The game marked the home opener of the Bears who improve to 2-0 on the young season. The visiting Nor'easters fall to 1-2 with the setback.
Junior attack Victoria McDonough (Marshfield, Mass.) paced Bridgewater State with three goals and four assists to go along with four draw controls, while sophomore midfielder Emily Hiller (Marion, Mass.) checked in with two goals and a pair of helpers. Senior midfielder Elizabeth Ettridge (Marshfield, Mass.) added three goals for the Bears including the game-winning tally with just 33 seconds left to play.
Sophomore defender Kelsi Brennan (Dedham, Mass.) led the BSU defensive effort with game-high totals of six ground balls and nine caused turnovers. Senior midfielder Lisa Moynihan (Norwood, Mass.) contributed four ground balls, five draw controls and two caused turnovers. Moynihan also scored her first goal of the season.
Sophomore midfielder Molly Camelo (Melrose, Mass.) paced UNE with a game-high four goals as well as five draw controls.
Trailing by one at the break, Bridgewater knotted the score at 6-6 51 seconds into the second half as Ettridge found the back of the net off an assist from freshman attack Jacqueline DeLorey (Westwood, Mass.. The Nor'easters then reeled off three straight goals in a 4:45 span, including a pair of player-advantage strikes from senior attack Nichole Carvalho (South Kingstown, R.I.), to take a 9-6 lead with 13 minutes remaining. Carvalho finished with two goals and an assist on the afternoon.
The Bears answered with four consecutive tallies with Moynihan scoring off an assist from McDonough to start the rally at the 11:56 mark. McDonough buried a shot on the free position at 10:44 and then set up junior attack Hayley White's (Dracut, Mass.) game-tying goal just 26 seconds later. With just over four minutes left to play, McDonough converted again on the free position to give the Bears their first lead since the opening minutes of the game.
Camelo then responded off the free position with 2:30 showing on the scoreboard to tie the game up at 10-10. The Bears won the ensuing draw, but could not capitalize as sophomore goaltender Taylor Hopkins (Pelham, N.Y.) made a fine save on Moynihan's free position attempt. After UNE turned the ball over, Bridgewater called timeout with 1:11 remaining and that would set the stage for Ettridge's late-game heroics. Hiller set up the winning tally as she found Ettridge cutting to the net and the senior captain ripped a shot past the UNE netminder with just 33 seconds left to play. The Nor'easters won the next draw, but were unable to get off a shot before time expired as the BSU defense came up big.
UNE held a 24-22 shot advantage for the game, while Bridgewater finished with the edge in both draw controls (12-11) and ground balls (28-21). Both teams went 3-for-6 on free position attempts.
BSU junior goalkeeper Hayley Barner (Westwood, Mass.) turned aside 11 shots to record her second win of the season and 16th of her career. Hopkins made ten saves in the setback for the Nor'easters.
Bridgewater State heads to Englewood, Florida next week for SpringFling 2019. The Bears take on Eastern Connecticut State University on Tuesday afternoon at 4:30 and Nazareth College on Wednesday at five. UNE heads to Hilton Head, South Carolina next week for a pair of games. The Nor'easters face-off against Husson University on Tuesday morning at 11 and the University of Rochester on Thursday morning at ten.