Seniors Lauren Bulk and Angelina Saporito played their final regular season home game in a Seahawk uniform. (Photo by Ed Habershaw)
Seniors Lauren Bulk and Angelina Saporito played their final regular season home game in a Seahawk uniform. (Photo by Ed Habershaw)

Four different Golden Bears score in final regular season game

NEWPORT, R.I. - Western New England University women's soccer enjoyed its highest offensive output of the year, defeating Salve Regina University, 4-0, in the final regular season contest for both teams in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) action at Reynolds Field.

Four different Golden Bears (7-8-4; 4-3-2 CCC) scored in the game as Western New England clinched the sixth seed in the conference playoffs which begin on Saturday (Nov. 1). Salve Regina, eliminated from postseason competition with a loss last Saturday, finishes its season with a 3-13-0 overall mark (1-8-0 CCC).

The Seahawks bid a fond farewell and thank you to a pair of seniors making their final regular season appearance in a Salve Regina uniform - Lauren Bulk (Portsmouth, R.I.) and Angelina Saporito (Bristol, Conn.). Their classmate, Christian Lawber (Portsmouth, R.I.), provided a play-by-play call of the game on the Seahawk live video broadcast.

Sophomore Becca Mercieri (East Longmeadow, Mass.) started the scoring with her third goal of the season at 11:42 with an assist from the team's leading scorer, senior Taylor Mazurski (Wolcott, Conn.). The Golden Bears scored another less than 10 minutes before intermission. After a couple of shots kept the ball in play in front of the Seahawk goal, junior Alicia Lewis (Johnsonville, N.Y.) cleaned up the loose ball to score her second goal of the season for a 2-0 lead the Western New England carried into the break.

Five minutes into the second half, Mazurski scored her team-leading sixth goal of the season. The Golden Bears, who entered the day with 17 goals in 18 games played, had scored three goals in a game three other times this season (3-0 on Aug. 31 against Manhattanville; 3-1 on Sep. 23 against Elms; and 3-0 on Sep. 27 against Gordon). However, Western New England had only scored five goals in it last eight games prior to today (2-4-2 since the end of September).

Mazurksi contributed her fourth point and second assist on the day when she made a through pass to junior Emma Norden (Belchertown, Mass.). Norden ranks second on the team with four goals.

Saporito made two saves as goalkeeper for the Seahawks while her counterpart, junior Briana Kubik (Blandford, Mass.), who entered the day as the save leader in the conference, added seven more to her total for 129 on the season.

Western New England earns the sixth seed and will travel to Eastern Nazarene College for a CCC quarterfinal on Saturday, November 1 (TBA). Salve Regina finishes with an eight-goal improvement on offense (24-16) from a season ago.