Women's Lacrosse Rolls Past Saint Joseph

Kaleigh Anderson (@KaleighAnd1)

CHICOPEE, Mass. –The Elms College Women's Lacrosse team flew past The University of Saint Joseph (Conn.) Blue Jays, 14-3, in a non-conference game Thursday afternoon at Leary Field. With the win the Blazers rise to 3-6 on the season while the Blue Jays fall to 3-5 overall.

The Blazers started the first with numerous scoring opportunities, firing their initial tally at the 26:48 marker after Haley Roberts (Westfield, Mass.) was able to find an Ashley Cava (Wilbraham, Mass.) cut from the back of the net to get the ball rolling for the Elms squad. From there Elms would dominate possession winning seven out of six first half draws along with eight first half grounders to continue on a seven goal stint led by Cava tallying three.  

The Blue Jays would get on the board at 14:36 after Hannah Lemek (Bristol, Conn.) retrieved a loose ball and ran it down the field to secure the unassisted score in an attempt to start a Saint Joseph run. However, the Blazers would fire back quickly with a rapid transition down the field after recovering a Blue Jay turnover. Victoria-Lynn Smith (Somers, Conn.) would rack in the Elms goal off of the transition from a Vanessa Vurno (Salem, Conn.) find giving Elms an 8-1 advantage.

From there Lindsey McNiff (Kingston, Mass.) secured a Blazer draw and made her way down the turf to find Vurno who then dished it out to Jillian Pirog (Ludlow, Mass.) Pirog then blasted past the Blue Jays defense to ring in another Elms bullet. Despite a Saint Joseph tally off of a free position at 6:11 from the stick of Rose St. Hilaire (West Hartford, Conn.) the Blazers would push forward scoring twice more before the end of the first half to post an 11-2 score.

The Blazers entered the second with the advantage that they only further pushed as Cava rang in two more bullets to sustain the pace. However the Blue Jays would continue to push, with Hilaire posting another score at 9:19 off a free position. Despite St. Joseph efforts Madison Crawford (Bennington, VT.) would close out the scoring column for the Blazers capturing her first goal of the season with 43 seconds remaining to produce a 14-3 scoreboard.

Emily Bourassa (Bristol, Conn.) made 15 saves for the Blue Jays, while Octavia McAllister (Springfield, Mass.) made six saves for Elms.

Elms edged St. Joseph in ground balls (17-11), draw controls (10-7), and shots (35-12).

The Blazers return back to action Saturday April 9^th when they play host to Daniel Webster at 1:00pm, while the Blue Jays will travel to Rivier Saturday April 9^th for a 3:00pm start.

ELMS LACROSSE