Slattery’s Career-High 10 Goals Highlight Lasers Overtime Victory

Newton, MA – Lasell College junior Ashley Slattery (Weymouth, Mass.) scored a career-high 10 goals to help Lasell pull out a come from behind victory in overtime against Nichols College, 17-16 in women's lacrosse action. The non-conference win brought Lasell's record to 10-1 on the season, while they remain perfect in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference at 5-0. Nichols fell to 3-5 overall, and they are 0-3 in Commonwealth Coast Conference play.

Slattery scored 10 of the Lasers 17 goals on the afternoon, while sophomore Britney Wuorio (Bolton, Mass.) tallied four goals and added a pair of assists. Bridget Ryan (Chatham, N.J.) added an assist and a pair of goals to help the Lasers cause.

Nichols College was led by Krista-Jean Forand (Plymouth, Mass.) and Sam McMillan (Bridgewater, Mass.), who each notched five goals on the day, while Grace Murphy (Montclair, Va.) and Emily Yourie (Ellington, Conn.) each scored twice for the Bison.

Lasell opened the scoring with the first two goals of the day, but Nichols responded scoring six of the next seven goals to build a 6-3 advantage with 17:08 left in the opening half. MacMillan accounted for three goals during the Bison run, while Forand added a pair.

Lasell countered scoring three of the next four markers in the contest, trimming the Nichols lead to 7-6 with 9:11 remaining in the opening half. Alyssa Bufis (Linden, N.J.), and Yourie each tallied a goal to push the Bison lead back to 9-6, and MacMillan added a goal in the final seconds of the half to give Nichols a 10-6 edge at the intermission.

After a scoreless opening five minutes of the second half, Slattery scored her fourth goal of the afternoon with 24:54 left in the game, cutting the Lasell deficit to 10-7. Nichols answered right back with a goal by Forand to regain their four goal lead with 23:27 to play. Slattery again found the back of the net with 21:09 remaining, but Nichols would not give in easily, getting goals from MacMillan and Murphy to push their lead to the biggest of the day at 13-8 with 17:23 left to play.

The Lasers were facing their biggest deficit of the season but Slattery would not relent, pouring in three consecutive goals in a span of 1:43 to bring Lasell back within two goals at 13-11 with just less than 15 minutes remaining.

Chelsea Shaughnessy (Halifax, Mass.) and Forand tacked on two more goals to push the Nichols lead back to four, at 15-11 with 11:03 remaining in the game.

Lasell sophomore Britney Wuorio, who had been held in check for most of the day found a bit of space and twice snuck the ball past Nichols keeper Danielle Mott (Cranston, R.I.), cutting the Lasell deficit to 15-13 with 6:47 remaining in the game. Lasell then controlled the ensuing draw and Bridget Ryan scored with 6:13 left, to trim the Bison lead to 15-14.

Each team was unable to convert over the next three minutes before Lasell's Slattery split a pair of defenders outside the 8 meter line and netted the game tying goal with 2:04 on the clock. Neither team was able to break the tie, sending the game into overtime.

The opening three minutes of extra time went by without either team being able to  solve the tightening defenses, but Lasell, courtesy of Slattery's 10^th goal took a 16-15 lead with 2:15 left in the second overtime. Wuorio tacked on her fourth goal of the game with 1:29 left, but Nichols continued to battle. Krista-Jean Forand scored with 1:06 to play, and the Bison forced a Lasell turnover with less than 20 second on the clock. The Bison pushed up the field in transition, earning themselves a free-position opportunity with 5.4 seconds remaining but were unable to convert when their shot sailed just over the top of the net.

Nichols goalkeeper Danielle Mott put together an outstanding performance, stopping 21 shots on the afternoon, but ended up taking the loss. Alexa Katsigianis saved 11 shots to earn her 10^th victory of the season in the net for Lasell.

Nichols will return to action on Saturday April 7^th, when they travel to Biddeford, Maine to take on the University of New England in Commonwealth Coast Conference action at 3:00pm.

Lasell will have a six day lay-off before hosting GNAC foe Simmons College on Wednesday April 11^th at 4:00pm.