Seahawks shoot past Sharks, 19-11

BOSTON, Mass. – The Salve Regina University women's lacrosse team jumped out to a 6-0 lead on their way to a 19-11 victory over Simmons College on Thursday night. The Seahawks were led by Kelly Burke (Georgetown, Mass.) and Sarah Livingston (Westford, Mass.), who combined to score 11 of the team's 19 tallies.

Jennifer Jones (Basking Ridge, N.J.) opened the scoring for Salve Regina, beating Sharks goalkeeper Kelly Last (West Haven, Conn.) off a free position shot. Less than a minute later, Burke doubled the team's lead with a high free position goal. Alyssa Corvi (Barrington, R.I.) scored unassisted 15 seconds later before Jones and Burke would increase the lead to six.

Sharks freshman Mary Essa (Las Vegas, Nev.) put the Sharks on the scoreboard when she received a pass from behind the net from Rachel Wallace (Braintree, Mass.) and beat Seahawks goalkeeper Josie O'Reilly (Middletown, R.I.) on the left side. Stephanie Oliveri (Waltham, Mass.), Callie Warnock (Kingston, Mass.) and Essa each tallied again to cut the Seahawks lead to ten at the half.

Simmons offense ignited in the second half with freshman Caitlin McNamara (Abington, Mass.) and sophomore Becca Shea (Quincy, Mass.) each burying two shots past O'Reilly and Meaghan Maurice (Portland, Maine) capitalizing on a free position opportunity even while the Sharks were down a player from a penalty. Wellie Antonellis (Keene, N.H.) finished the scoring for the Sharks but the deficit was too great as the Seahawks moved to 4-1 overall in their 2012 campaign.

The Seahawks held a 43-26 advantage in shots and were 7-15 on free position opportunities while the Sharks held a slight advantage on ground balls 29-28 and won 16 to Salve Regina's 13 draw controls.

Simmons returns to the field on Saturday, March 24th at 1:00 p.m. against non-conference Framingham State while the Seahawks host Wheelock College on the same date and time.

Courtesy of Simmons Sports Information