Women's Lacrosse Prevails in Big Game at New Haven, 15-14
NEW HAVEN, CT – Mary Pasquantonio (Plainville, MA) scored six goals but Inna Hedden's (Woodbine, MD) save with eight seconds left was the difference, as the Merrimack women's lacrosse team held on for the 15-14 victory over New Haven Saturday afternoon.
The Chargers took a 10-8 lead in the second half, but Merrimack rattled off four goals in 1:45 span, two of them from freshman Tyler Szymanski (Framingham, MA) and used a 7-2 run to lead 15-12 with 3:42 remaining.
But New Haven came back, scoring twice in a 23-second span to cut the lead to 15-14 with 2:09 left.
Following a Merrimack turnover, the Chargers recovered the ball with 57 seconds left but following a timeout, Ashley Ferrandiz was stopped by Hedden, and Liz Lyons (Westwood, MA) picked up the ground ball, and the Warriors emerged with the big road victory.
In a rematch of last year's Northeast-10 Quarterfinals won by Merrimack, and the 2009 NE-10 Semifinals won by New Haven, Pasquantonio scored five first-half goals as the teams were deadlocked at eight at halftime.
"Today was a great game for our defense," said head coach Corinne Baker. "New Haven is talented offensively and we did a good job at slowing down their fast breaks especially towards the end of the game. We had plenty of fresh legs, and our attacking depth really came through."
Pasquantonio netted three of her career-high eight goals on free-position attempts, while Jen Pino (North Andover, MA) and Szymanski each tallied two in the victory. Colleen Strachan (Bedford, MA) had a goal, two assists and five draw controls, while Hedden finished with seven saves.
Alexis Gabbe (four goals) and Sara Magnone (five goals) led the Charger attack, combining for nine goals in the game.
Merrimack (5-2, 2-1 NE-10) hosts American International Tuesday at 4 p.m. at Warrior Field.
