Peterson, Persky Power Blue Lacrosse Past Regis, 9-3

WELLESLEY, Mass. – Junior Courtney Peterson (Glastonbury, Conn.) and first year Dacia Persky (Las Vegas, Nev.) each scored hat tricks to lead Wellesley College lacrosse to a 9-3 non-conference victory over Regis College on Wednesday afternoon.

Wellesley has now won four-straight games for the first time since the 2011 season, improving to 4-1 on the season and 2-1 at home. Regis suffers their first setback of the year to drop to 2-1. 

Junior Mary Lemay (Longmeadow, Mass.) scored a goal and dished out a game-high three assists for the Blue. Wellesley also got goals from senior Nicole DeCanio (Weston, Conn.) and junior Nikki Sharkin (Summit, N.J.), with Sharkin adding five ground balls, four draw controls and a pair of caused turnovers. First year Lena Engbretson (Beaverton, Ore.) picked up a team-high six ground balls.

Regis senior Sam Salamone (Milford, Mass.) scored a goal and had a game-high eight ground balls and three caused turnovers. Junior Arianna Woodley (Norwood, Mass.) and sophomore Nicole Roche (Waltham, Mass.) each recorded a goal for the Pride.

Peterson scored the first and second goals of the contest, first beating Regis goalkeeper Emma Decker (Southborough, Mass.) on an unassisted marker, before Lemay found her cutting towards the front of the net to make the score 2-0 at 24:30. 

Persky added the third Wellesley goal at 21:48, also on an assist from Lemay, before Salamone got the Pride on the board a little over 14 minutes later with a free position shot goal at 7:31. The Blue then closed out the first half with a 4-1 lead, thanks to Sharkin's tenth goal of the year at 1:34.

Wellesley continued to role after the break, with Persky netting her second just over two minutes into the second stanza to make the score 5-1. A Regis response from Woodley cut the deficit to 5-2, as the Pride once again took advantage of a free position attempt.

Wellesley then pulled away for good thanks to three-straight goals, with Lemay netting her only tally before she set up DeCanio for her second of the season. Persky capped her hat trick with a free postion goal as the Blue took an 8-2 edge with 17:13 left in regulation. Regis added their third goal off the stick of Roche at 11:54 before Peterson closed out the 9-3 win by completing her hat trick with a free position goal in the final seconds.

Junior Wendy Nettleton (La Jolla, Calif.) and first year Chloe Tucker (San Ramon, Calif.) combined to make seven saves in the Wellesley net, as Nettleton improved to 4-1 on the year. Decker turned backed 14 shots on 23 shots on goal to drop to 2-1 overall.

Wellesley held a 35-14 advantage in shots and a 33-21 advantage in ground balls, forcing 35 Regis turnovers while committing 28 of their own.

Wellesley will travel to Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colo. for their next two contests. The Blue will take on Whitman College on Tuesday, March 22, at 2:00 PM EST and the hometown Tigers at 6:00 PM EST on Thursday, March 24. Regis will travel to St. Joseph's (Maine) next Wednesday, March 23 at 6:00 PM.