Women's Lacrosse Captures Sixth Straight Win

In a highly contested game, the Plymouth State Women's lacrosse team defeated the Bridgewater State University Bears, 14-13, to improve the Panthers' record to 6-2. This win increased PSU's winning streak to six games.

Molly Gleason (Haverhill, MA) scored the first two goals of the game to give the Panthers the early 2-0 lead. After Kaitlyn Wilder (Framingham, MA) and Shannon Connerty (Nashua, N.H.) found the back of the net to give PSU a 4-0 lead, it appeared that the route was on.

BSU had other ideas, as they scored two of the next three goals to get the game back to a three goal game, but Amy MacDonald (Hull, MA) and Jordyn Godfrey (Glenville, N.Y.) each scored a goal to put PSU up 7-2 with 11:20 left in the first half. Unfortunately for Plymouth, Bridgewater scored six of the next seven goals to tie the game up at eight heading into halftime.

With Bridgewater having the momentum to end the half, PSU coaches Kristen Guest and Conor Davis got their team to calm down, and let them know that they had dominated the first twenty minutes of play.

Bridgewater scored off of the opening face-off of the second half, but this would be the only lead that they would have for the duration of the game.

Caroline Vonachen (Framingham, MA) scored a goal about a minute and a half later to tie the game back up at nine, and Shannon Connerty scored two straight goals to put the Panthers back up by two. BSU followed the Connerty goals by scoring two themselves, but MacDonald and Gleason both scored to put the Panthers back up, 13-11.

The Bears would not go away, as they scored yet another goal to get the game back to a one-goal deficit, but Emily Tilton (Cranston, R.I.) scored what would be the game-winning goal, as Bridgewater was only able to score one more goal in the game.

This is the second consecutive year that Plymouth and Bridgewater played a close game, as the Bears defeated the Panthers in overtime last season.

Aside from chalking up another mark in the win column for the Panthers, this was a game that could go a long way for the rest of the season. Since Bridgewater was able to comeback and make a game out of what could have been a blowout for the Panthers, it allowed PSU to see what they could do when faced with adversity. With having a number of freshman playing a large quantity of minutes (including Godfrey, Wilder, Vonachen, Megan Lunetta (Plymouth, MA), and Chandler Lemay (Narragansett, R.I.) on this team, the maturation of the team became quite evident as this game progressed.

Of the six remaining games on the 2014 regular-season schedule, five of the games are against Little East Conference opponents (the one non-conference game being against Wellesley College next week). Having captured their first conference win against UMass Dartmouth last weekend, the Panthers will look to sweep their conference opponent for the third consecutive year.

The next game for the Women's lacrosse team will take place in Connecticut, as PSU will face Eastern Connecticut State University on Saturday (Apr. 12) afternoon. Following that game, PSU will host Keene State on Tuesday night (Apr. 15), in a game that could decide who will win the regular season crown.