Women’s Lacrosse Loses GNAC Match to USJ

WESTON, Mass. – Regis College matched University of Saint Joseph goal-for-goal through the first half, but the Blue Jays pulled away in the second half on their way to a 20-11 victory over the Pride Tuesday evening in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference women's lacrosse match at Regis Stadium.

Morgan Pero (Hartford, Vt.) and Abbie Doheny (Lunenburg, Mass.) led the Pride with four goals apiece, while Madeline Conover (West Newbury, Mass.) dished out three assists. Vanessa Kozinski (Merrimack, N.H.) paced the team with six ground balls, and Mia Rogers (Revere, Mass.) caused four turnovers to go along with four ground balls.

USJ scored first on an unassisted goal by Jenna Banta 2:35 into the match, but Regis responded with three straight goals, the first two by Doheny 1:16 apart and the third tally coming from Pero. Banta scored again 42 seconds after Pero's goal, beginning a 5-1 scoring stretch for the Blue Jays to give them a 6-4 lead.

Pero scored near the end of the first quarter and five-and-a-half minutes into the second period to tie the match at 6-6, but Makenzie Dinger would put the ball in the net 52 seconds later to give USJ a lead it would not relinquish.

In the third quarter, USJ scored four unanswered goals in the span of 1:39, the last two coming from Dinger 20 seconds apart, to extend its lead to five at 13-8. The Blue Jays would put the match away in the fourth quarter with five straight goals, with Banta scoring the middle three goals of the stretch.

Banta finished with seven goals and 11 draw controls as the Blue Jays controlled possession with a 25-10 draw control advantage. Cayleen DeFaranos earned five goals and four assists, Dinger ended up with four goals, and Ana Nogueira contributed three goals, two assists, seven draw controls, and six ground balls.

Nina Lestrud played close to 52 minutes in net for the Blue Jays and finished with eight saves as she picked up the victory. Grace Heffernan (Winchester, Mass.) collected 10 saves in the match for the Pride.

Regis College (1-5, 1-3 GNAC) plays its final non-conference match of the regular season at Fitchburg State Friday, March 25, starting at 6 p.m. University of Saint Joseph (3-5, 1-3 GNAC) continues league play at Colby-Sawyer Saturday, March 26, beginning at 1 p.m.