The Hawks (11-6; 9-0) came back from a five goal deficit and defeated Bryant (8-7; 5-3) on Friday night by the score of 12-8.
The game began with Bryant dominating the first 15 minutes as they gained a 5-0 lead with a pair goals from Lisa Vendel and Kimberley Sniffen. With 13:50 left to play in the first half, the blue and white were finally on the board with a goal from sophomore midfielder Emily Barbieri.
Sophomore midfielder Allison Stathius scored two consecutive goals in the next three minutes to cut the Bulldogs lead to 5-3. However, Bryant answered right back with a goal at the 8:43 minute mark.
Sophomore Karlee Dean wasted little time to respond for MU to cut the lead to 6-4. Stathius scored her third goal of the game with 4:37 left in the first frame. Dean scored again to tie the game up going into halftime at 6-6.
The Hawks carried their momentum from the end of the first into the second half, with Dean scoring her third goal just 49 seconds into the frame. She scored on a free position shot and gave the blue and white their first lead of the game.
Three minutes later, Dean scored again, and increased MU’s lead to 8-6. Vendel scored her third goal of the afternoon to cut the Hawks lead to one. The Hawks then scored four unanswered goals, including another one from Stathius, one from senior attacker Cassie Campasano, and two from senior midfielder Sam Savona.
Vendel scored her fourth and completed the scoring at the 6:57 minute mark to end the game with a 12-8 score.
MU net minder Katie Donohoe made 11 saves, including eight in the final 15 minutes of the game. Sophomores Dean and Stathius led the Hawks with four goals each.
“Our defense started to settle in and we did a better job sliding,” Head Coach Denise Wescott said. “Gianna had a great game for us tonight; she was able to shut down a lot of their drives. Offensively, we found open players when we needed them. Katie just shut the door on them in the second half along with our defense. The save right at the end of the half really gave us the momentum to start the second half. We went to goal hard and Allison had some key goals for us tonight.”
MU started off the game with a 1-0 lead, after Savona scored just 1:29 into the game. CCSU’s Falynn McCartney wasted little time to tie up the game at the 20:06 mark.
Senior defender Gianna D’Urso scored her first goal of the season on a free position shot that she earned when she was fouled to put the Hawks up 2-1. The lead did not last long when CCSU’s Betsy Vendel tied up the game a minute later.
Vendel then put her squad up 3-2 at the 15:05 mark when she scored her second straight goal. Blue Devil Amanda Toke put her squad up two seven minutes later.
Campasano scored her first goal of the game to cut the lead to one with 6:43 left in the first frame. However, Toke answered back before the half ended to give the Blue Devils a 5-3 lead going into halftime.
Like most of their games this season, the Hawks were trailing at halftime, but they came out and scored five unanswered goals, including two from Stathius and one from sophomore attacker Meaghan Hess. Junior midfielder Kaleigh Gibbons gave the Hawks the lead with her goal, and Campasano scored the fifth straight goal to put MU up 8-5.
Blue Devil Ryan Mackenzy cut the Hawks lead to two, and teammate Claire Healy scored with 3:39 left to play. Campasano put the game away on a free position goal with 2:37 and the Hawks came away with a 9-7 victory.
Donohoe had seven saves and her counterpart Blue Devil goalie Morgan Tullar had 12 saves. The Hawks outshot CCSU by a slim 25-23 margin.
Freshman midfielder Kristina Vangeli had five draw controls in the game. She set MU’s record for most draws in a single season with 66, surpassing former MU All-American Heather Bryan’s 2001 mark of 63.
The blue and white will return to action this weekend and will be the number one seed in the 2013 NEC tournament.
The Hawks returned to action on Sunday at noon when they traveled to face off against Central Connecticut State with the NEC Tournament hosting rights on the line.
The Hawks finished the NEC with an undefeated record with a 9-7 victory over Central Connecticut State (9-8, 7-2).
The defending champion Hawks captured the 2013 Northeast Conference Regular Season Championship, and they earned the right to host the 2013 NEC Women’s Lacrosse Tournament next Friday and Saturday on Kessler Field.
The blue and white finished with a 9-0 record in the NEC, this was the first time MU finished with a perfect record in league play since the 2006 season, which was also the last time they hosted the NEC Tournament.
The Hawks 11 regular season victories are the most since the 2008 squad that recorded 12 wins. MU outscored league opponents 110-52 this year, which includes 68-21 advantage in the second half.
“I’m really proud of this team, I thought we fought very hard today to win the game,” Wescott said. “A lot of players stepped up big. Cassie scoring for us, Kelly going in and face-guarding Vendel. Katie had some great plays in goal; Gianna did a great job in one-on-ones and getting the draw for us later in the game. This was a total team effort. It’s great to end the regular season undefeated and being able to host the tournament. Everybody did the small things we needed to do to get this win. We needed to fight like dogs today to get this victory and they did that.”
PHOTO COURTESY of MU Photography