Women's Lacrosse Defeated By Westfield State In MASCAC Opener, 19-12

Westfield, MA --- Westfield State senior Stephanie Lenhardt (Duxbury, MA) finished with a game-best seven goals and junior Meg Griffin (Granby, CT) tallied six times as both helped pace the Owls to a 19-12 victory over Worcester State in MASCAC women's lacrosse action this afternoon at Alumni Field.

With the victory Westfield State improves to 3-4 overall (1-0 MASCAC) while the Lancers fall to 6-1 and 0-1 in conference play.

Griffin also corralled a contest-high eight draws while classmate Blair Smith (Milford, MA) registered five goals and three ground balls. Sophomore Caroline Smart (Weymouth, MA) dished out a trio of assists.

Worcester State was paced offensively by senior Angela Grassetti (Feeding Hills, MA) who finished with a hat-trick, two assists and four draw controls while junior Jackie Connors (Ashland, MA) picked up four ground balls, seven draws and she forced two miscues to propel the defense.

Connors, junior Kaila Chase (Northbridge, MA) and freshman Alexis Vecchiarelli (Agawam, MA) all potted a duo of goals each.

Lenhardt and Griffin netted two goals apiece to help give the Owls the early 4-1 edge with 17:01 left in the opening stanza before Grassetti scored a pair of unassisted tallies 45 seconds apart to narrow the gap to one goal.

After Smith, Griffin and Lenhardt answered to put Westfield State up three five minutes later (7-4), sophomore Angelina Sutherland (Tewksbury, MA) and classmate Alaina Martin (E. Longmeadow, MA) came right back for the Lancers with goals of their own to shave the deficit to 7-6 at the 7:23 mark.

The hosts, however, took control of the game by closing out the stanza with a 4-1 spurt over the final 4:32 of play to open up an 11-7 margin at the intermission. Smith registered two markers in the run for the Owls.

Westfield State outscored the visitors 8-5 in the second period as Lenhardt, Smith and Griffin accounted for seven tallies.

Around the midway point, the Lancers rallied when senior Molly Kilday (Westford, MA), Vecchiarelli and Chase combined for four goals to help narrow the gap to 17-11 at the 8:37 mark, but that was as close as the Lancers got the rest of the way.

Sophomore Lea Robichaud (Holden, MA) turned aside 10 shots in her first setback of the season (6-1). Junior Mimi Khampaeng (Hamden, MA) collected seven saves in 57:32 minutes of action and she upped her record to 3-4.

The hosts led in shots on goal (29-19), ground balls (16-14) and draw controls (18-15).

Both squads will play non-conference opponents in 7 PM matchups next week. Worcester State heads to Curry on Thursday while the Owls play host to Smith on Monday.