Sarah Woods led the Seahawks with three goals in SRU's 14-9 loss to WNE.
Sarah Woods led the Seahawks with three goals in SRU's 14-9 loss to WNE.

Golden Bears outlast Seahawks

NEWPORT, R.I. – Despite a second half comeback, the Salve Regina women's lacrosse team fell to Western New England in Commonwealth Coast Conference action, 14-9, Saturday afternoon.

With the win, the Golden Bears remained perfect on the season at 11-0 and 4-0 in the conference while the Seahawks slip to 3-9 on the year and 0-5 in the CCC.

Western New England took a 6-2 lead into half time but the Seahawks came out of the break firing and senior Grace Kelly (Auburn, N.Y.) notched her first of the game off a pass from junior Gina Tortorici (Deer Park, N.Y.) to cut the lead to 6-3. Western New England then scored the next three goals to push its lead to 9-3. Senior Karley Malenczak (Sayville, N.Y.) netted her 10th of the year with 21:07 to play in the second to get the Seahawks within five goals, 9-4, but sophomores Kelsey Armstrong (Groton, Conn.) and Taylor Scialdone (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) went back-to-back to push the WNE lead back to seven goals at 11-4.

With just under 10 minutes to play, junior Sarah Woods (East Lyme, Conn.) scored back-to-back goals, the first off a pass from sophomore Abigail Tepper (Foxboro, Mass.) and the second on free position shot to cut the lead back to five, 11-6.Senior Kaitlynn Stevens (Stratford, Conn.) answered with a pair of goals and sophomore Brooke Kumnick (Granbury, Conn.) finished off the Golden Bears' scoring with her second of the game to push WNE's lead to 14-6 with 4:15 to play.

Tepper went back-to-back with a pair of goals before Malenczak scored the game's final goal with seven seconds left to bring the score to its final, 14-9, in favor of Western New England.

Western New England opened the game with four goals in the first six minutes to take a 4-0 lead as four different players scored for WNE. Freshman Kaitlin Gillespie (Haddam, Conn.) scored her eighth of the season to stop the Golden Bears run before Armstrong and senior Shelby Trebbe (Wilbraham, Mass.) scored the next two goals of the game to give WNE a 6-1 lead. Woods closed out the first half with her first of the game and 25th of the year off a pass from Tortorici with 34 seconds left in the half.

The Golden Bears were led by Scaildone and Stevens with four points each (3g, 1a) while the Seahawks were led by Woods' hat trick.

Defensively, five different players caused a pair of turnovers for Western New England and Sherman picked up a team high three ground balls. Salve Regina was led by sophomore Erin Gerhard (Scituate, Mass.) and senior Kayla Sheehan (Pomfret, Conn.) with three caused turnovers each. Sheehan picked up a team-best five ground balls.

Western New England returns to action when the Golden Bears travel to Castleton State on Monday while the Seahawks will take on Nichols on Wednesday in Dudley, Mass.