Woods leads Seahawks past Corsairs

MIDDLETOWN, R.I. – Junior Sarah Woods' (East Lyme, Conn.) notched a career-best 10 points to lead the Salve Regina women's lacrosse team to its first win of the season, a decisive 20-12 victory over UMass Dartmouth, Saturday afternoon. Woods led the team with a career-best six goals and four assists.

The win for Salve Regina lifts the Seahawks to 1-2 on the year while the Corsairs drop to 1-2 with the loss.

After a tightly contested first half left the scored 9-8 in favor of UMass Dartmouth, the Seahawks exploded for 12 goals over the final 30 minutes and outscored the Corsairs 12-3 in the half.

Just 25 seconds into the second half, senior Karley Malenczak (Sayville, N.Y.)  got a quick feed from Woods off the draw control and took the ball straight to the net to score her first of the season and tie the game, 9-9. Woods got the ball from senior Grace Kelly (Auburn, N.Y.) 23 seconds later off the next draw and scored her second of the game to give Salve Regina its first lead of game since 6:09 into the first at 10-9. Freshman Catrina Longo (Billerica, Mass.) answered with her fourth of the contest to re-tie the game at 10-10 with 26:40 to play.

Salve Regina used an 8-0 run over the next 14 minutes to take a commanding 18-10 lead with 12:18 to play. Malenczak kicked off the scoring burst with her second of the game off a pass from Woods. Kelly and freshman Courtney Moulton (Merrimack, N.H.) sandwiched a pair of free position goals around sophomore Abigail Tepper's (Foxboro, Mass.) third goal of the season to give SRU a 14-10 lead.

With 18:24 showing on the clock, Woods sent home her third of the game and seventh on the year before dishing out an assist for Kelly to give the Seahawks a 16-10 lead. Junior Gina Tortorici (Deer Park, N.Y.) and Woods capped the eight-goal run for Salve Regina with back-to-back goals just under two minutes apart.

Senior Taylor Corsano (Bourne, Mass.) halted the scoring run for Salve Regina with her ninth goal of the season off a pass from Longo with 10:32 to play. Sophomore Colleen Kane (Arlington, Mass.) scored her 17^th goal of the season off a free position shot to cut the Salve Regina lead to 18-12 with 9:49 to play.

Freshman Kaitlin Gillespie (Haddam, Conn.) tallied her first collegiate goal off a pass from sophomore Katherine Miele (North Reading, Mass.) to extend the lead to 19-12 before Woods scored her final of the contest with 4:09 to play to bring the score to its final, 20-12.

Just as they opened the second half, the Seahawks got on the board quickly to open the game as Kelly scored her first of the game just 18 seconds into the contest. Corsano and Woods went back to back with goals to give Salve Regina a 2-1 lead with 23:51 to play in the first half. Kane rattled off two-straight goals before Corsano scored her second of the gameto give UMD a 4-2 lead. 

Kelly and sophomore Erin Gerhard (Scituate, Mass.) scored on back-to-back eight meter shots to re-tie the game at 4-4 with 15:29 to play in the first. Longo scored three-straight goals in a matter of 48 seconds to push the Corsairs lead to 7-4 with 11:26 to play. Tepper and Woods each scored off a pair of assists from Tortorici to cut the lead to 7-6 but two more goals from Kane gave the Corsairs a 9-6 lead with 2:01 left in the half. Tepper closed out the first half with a pair of goals to draw the Seahawks within one goal, 9-8, at the intermission.

Woods and freshman Jacqueline Pilatti (South Winds, Conn.) led the team with seven and six draw controls, respectively. Senior goalie Josephine O'Reilly (Middletown, R.I.) needed just six saves in the win for Salve Regina. Freshman Leah Wilkinson (Northford, Conn.) started in net for the Corsairs and allowed 18 goals and made 10 saves while classmate Nicole Butts (Milford, Mass.) made three saves and allowed two goals in 12:18 to finish out the game.

Salve Regina continues to spring break home stand on Wednesday when Husson visits Gaudet Field for a 4:30 contest.