UMass Dartmouth storms back to stun Salve Regina

NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. - For the first 27 minutes, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's women's lacrosse team played to a neck-and-neck deadlock with the Salve Regina Seahawks. 

The game then took one big swing back, followed by a momentous, memorable swing forward as the Corsairs overcame a five goal deficit in the game's final 13 minutes to pull out a 13-12 victory at Cressy Field Tuesday afternoon. 

Senior captain Allison Trearchis (Tyngsboro, Mass.) scored the game's deciding goal by stuffing home a feed from junior attacker Gillian Carey (Waltham, Mass.) with 1:30 to play. The game-winner came just 32 seconds after senior defender Andrea Russo (Tyngsboro, Mass) tied the game on a free position shot for her third goal of the afternoon. The Corsairs had trailed for over 30 minutes prior to Russo's marker.

The Corsairs dug themselves a five goal deficit by allowing the Seahawks to bookend halftime with three goals on either side, scoring six of the game's seven goals over a six minute stretch.  

Sandwiched in the middle of the Seahawk run, Russo scored what proved to be a crucial goal with five seconds remaining in the first half.  The Corsairs trailed 8-6 at halftime and 12-7 after the final Seahawk goal of the game with 13:07 remaining. 

At halftime, Jennings again elected to swap out freshman goalie Angelina Donovan (Medford, Mass.) for her senior counterpart Liz Miller (Littleton, Mass.). Each keeper tallied five saves apiece, for a total of ten on the day. Miller withstood an early surge by the Seahawk offense and held on to limit Salve to four second half goals, none of which were scored in the game's final 13 minutes. 

Freshman attacker Brittney Enos (East Falmouth, Mass.) began the Corsairs' reversal of fortune by scoring consecutive goals on free position shots with 12:29 and 10:48 remaining, respectively. Enos then assisted the next Corsair goal, scored by senior midfielder Liz Stapleton (Wakefield, Mass.) with five minutes to play, slashing the deficit to 12-10. Enos made her return to the field on Tuesday after missing Saturday's game due to injury. 

Carey got the Corsairs on the board first by scoring her first of two goals just 1:59 into the first half.  Both of Carey's goals were assisted were assisted by junior attacker Samantha Wonson (Lowell, Mass.). Their second half contribution narrowed the gap to 12-11 with 4:34 remaining. Wonson scored a goal of her own to tie the game at 5 with 3:54 remaining in the first half, effectively ending the back-and-forth phase of the game. 

Russo led the way with three goals for the Corsairs, while Carey, Stapleton, Enos, and Trearchis all tallied two apiece. 

The Corsairs improved to 3-2 with the victory, while the Seahawks dropped to 1-6 with the defeat. UMass Dartmouth will return to action when they visit Framingham State Saturday. Salve Regina will visit Roger Williams Thursday.

Courtesy of UMass Dartmouth sports information