#13 Women's Lacrosse Moves Closer to Home Field with 21-8 Win over FPU
NORTH ANDOVER, MA – The 13th-ranked Merrimack women's lacrosse team notched its third-straight win, defeating Franklin Pierce 21-8 Tuesday afternoon in its final regular season conference game.
Merrimack (11-5, 8-4 NE-10) will likely finish fourth in the Northeast-10 and will host a quarterfinal game on Wednesday, May 4, likely against New Haven in a rematch of last year's quarterfinals won by Merrimack. The Chargers lead Merrimack by one game, but New Haven takes on #1 Adelphi Wednesday, and the Warriors hold the tiebreaker over New Haven and Southern New Hampshire, who also has four losses but also must face Adelphi still.
The Warriors led 10-0 through 22:11, getting the first seven goals from seven different scorers in the first 13:35, including three off free-position shots.
Colleen Strachan (Bedford, MA) scored four times and added an assist in the first 30 minutes, while Mary Pasquantonio (Plainville, MA), Alicia Tinsley (Shrewsbury, MA) and Maria DeStefano (Eliot, ME) each netted a pair of goals.
Merrimack forced seven first-half turnovers, two each from Kristin Elliot (Amherst, NH) and Dara Hayes (Calgary, AB) as the hosts outshot the Ravens 22-10.
Strachan led the way with five goals in the win, getting her team-leading 45th on the season midway through the second half while Tinsley netted four. Tinsley gave the Warriors four players with 30 or more goals on the season.
Christina McCarron (Westwood, MA) and DeStefano each finished with three goals, while Tyler Szymanski (Framingham, MA) added a pair of goals.
"I thought we played well as a team today, especially in the first half," said head coach Corinne Baker. "We hung tough against a very physical team and crept one step closer to fourth place."
Freshman Inna Hedden (Woodbine, MD) made 12 saves in net, six in the first half, for her 11th victory of the year.
Merrimack concludes the regular season at #8 C.W. Post Saturday at 10 a.m. in a non-conference battle.
