Lacrosse Drops Regular Season Finale at Wheaton, 12-5

NORTON, Mass. – Wellesley College lacrosse dropped a 12-5 decision to host Wheaton College in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) and regular season finale final for both schools on Wednesday afternoon.

The Lyons end the regular season at 9-8 overall and 6-2 in conference, while the Blue fall to 9-7 overall and 4-4 in NEWMAC play. Wheaton will enter the conference tournament as the second overall seed. The Blue claimed the fifth seed in the standings. 

Junior Brooke Sabol (Landgrove, Vt.) tallied three goals to lead the host Lyons in scoring. Junior Angela Mallis (Falmouth, Maine) and senior Jenna Tewksbury (Concord, N.H.) each chipped in with two goals apiece. Seniors Allie Bush (Kennebunk, Maine), Katherine Kowal (Ossining, N.Y.) and Madison Cohen (East Lyme, Conn.), junior Hannah Gasperoni (Hampton, N.H.) and first year Maddy Lahm (Lyme, Conn.) also scored for the Lyons. In goal, sophomore Molly Witten (Bethesda, Md.) made six saves to improve to 8-6 on the year. 

For the Blue, junior Courtney Peterson (Glastonbury, Conn.) and first year Dacia Persky (Las Vegas, Nev.) each collected two goals. Junior Mary Lemay (Longmeadow, Mass.) scored the other Wellesley goal, while senior Ellie Mannon (Birmingham, Ala.) recorded an assist. Junior goalkeeper Wendy Nettleton (La Jolla, Calif.) made 12 saves on 24 shots on goal. 

Mallis put Wheaton on the board first at 27:03. Peterson responded just four minutes later to tie the game for the Blue. The teams exchanged goals until Wheaton was able to string together back-to-back markers to make the score 5-3 when Sabol scored at 3:55. Lemay scored to pull the Blue back to within one with 1:28 to play in the first, before Tewksbury put the Lyons back up by two, at 6-4, when she scored 57 seconds before halftime. 

Wheaton held the Blue to one goal in the second half, scoring six unanswered goals after the break to take the 12-5 victory. Sabol started the run of six-straight Lyons goals at 22:59. Lahm would close out the run with just 39 seconds to play. Peterson got the Blue on the board in the dying seconds of the second to make the final 12-5 Wheaton. 

Wheaton outshot Wellesley 27-16 in the contest and held a 27-21 mark in ground balls and an 11-8 edge in draw controls.  

The Blue will open NEWMAC tournament play on Saturday afternoon at 1:00 PM at MIT. The winner of Saturday's contest will advance to play top-seeded Babson on Saturday May 2 at 12:00 PM at Springfield College.