Women's Lacrosse clinches LEC title

By defeating Western Connecticut State University last Saturday, and the University of Southern Maine this past Wednesday, the Plymouth State Women's Lacrosse team will host the Little East Conference tournament. These two wins bring the Panthers' winning streak to 12, while they are continue to be undefeated in conference play with a 5-0 record.

The game against Western Connecticut was a back-and-forth battle all day, as the two teams were within two goals of each other for over 55 minutes of the game. Despite being down early in this game, the Panthers were able to rally around players such as Caitlin Swanson (Holderness, N.H.), Shannon Connerty (Nashua, N.H.) and Marie Lander (Ossipee, N.H.). These three players combined for seven goals and 11 ground balls in the victory over the Colonials.

In the second half, the two teams exchanged goals for the first eight minutes of the half, but West Conn ended up with a two-goal lead with 13:42 left in the second half. After Caitlin Swanson and Molly Gleason (Haverhill, Mass.) scored a goal a piece to tie the game at 11 (which put both of them at three goals in the contest), Lorin Field (Hollis, N.H.) stepped up huge in net for the Panthers, making a huge save with 34 seconds left in the game. PSU then got the ball into their offensive zone, and McKenna Bay (Maracaibo, Venezuela) got the game-winning goal with five seconds left in the game after a nice pass from Amanda Richardson (Bradford, N.H.).

"Wow, what a game!" exclaimed the Head Coach for the Panthers, Kristin Blanchette after defeating Western Connecticut. "We definitely didn't play out best game of the year today, but we ended up with the all important win" added Blanchette. While the win might have been more of a challenge then Plymouth had anticipated, this ultimately means that the Panthers have defeated the three best teams in the LEC this season (two weeks ago, PSU defeated both Eastern Connecticut State University [13-8] and Keene State [16-13]). Going into this season, the Panthers were picked to finish fourth in the conference. Needless to say, Caitlin Swanson was right when she told me before the season started that Plymouth was  "going to surprise a lot of teams."

While a lot of players have been playing extremely well for the Panthers, two players, Molly Gleason and Shannon Connerty, were recognized by the Little East Conference as Defensive Player of the Week (for Gleason) and Rookie of the Week (for Connerty). Both of these players have now received these awards two weeks in a row, and for Gleason, this was the third time this season that she has received this award. Over the past week, Gleason, who is currently ranked 6th in the nation with 7.67 draw controls per game, had 10 ground balls and 12 draw controls against West Conn (which is on top of the aforementioned 3 goals in the contest). Connerty also had a superb week, as she tallied eight points against Keene (six goals, two assists), and another three points against WCSU (as well as a career high five ground balls).

Coach Blanchette has been pleased with both first year players' production, stating that Connerty is "just a freshman maniac" and that "when you put up 8 points vs Keene as a freshman, you're kind of a big deal". On Gleason, Blanchette says that "Molly's stats per game are some of the best in the country, so no one in the conference comes close". Both players have been outstanding all year and look to continue that success into the LEC tournament.

Tidbits and Recognition

-Going into the game against the University of Southern Maine, Molly Gleason needed just 10 more draw controls for the rest of the season to tie the Plymouth State women's record for draw controls for a season.

-Meghan McNabb needs only one assist to set the record for assists in a season.