Late Goal Sends Nichols Past Wellesley Lacrosse, 11-10

WELLESLEY, Mass. – Sophomore Makala Dube (Brooklyn, Conn.) scored with nine seconds remaining in regulation to lift visiting Nichols College to an 11-10 non-conference victory over Wellesley College lacrosse on a rainy Wednesday evening at Butler Stadium. 

Dube's second goal of the game came on an assist from junior Hadley Houghton (Madison, Conn.) and completed a fourth quarter rally to keep the Bison undefeated on the season (8-0 overall). Houghton finished the contest with five goals and two assists to lead Nichols and now has a team-leading 44 goals on the season. 

Wellesley (2-5 overall) got five goals from sophomore Finley Tipton (Coppell, Texas) and four goals from first year Lillian Games (Wayne, Pa.). On defense, junior Julee Sharma (Lake Mary, Fla.) picked-up a game-high six ground balls and had a season-best four caused turnovers. 

The Blue built-up an 8-6 lead after three quarters of play on the strength of Tipton and Games' efforts. Trailing by one at halftime, Wellesley outscored Nichols 4-1 in the third quarter, eventually taking an 8-5 lead. Tipton scored the first goal after the break on an unassisted effort at 13:12. Senior Willa McGough (Plainfield, N.H.) then set-up Games at 10:32 to give the Blue the lead, 6-5. With Wellesley playing down a player, a heads-up play by senior Gabrielle Shell (Upper Arlington, Ohio) set-up sophomore Phoebe Calero (Havre de Grace, Md.) alone in front to make the score 7-5 at 5:18. A goal from Tipton at the 3:46 mark gave Wellesley its largest lead of the game, 8-5.

Houghton scored a minute later, taking advantage of a player-up opportunity to make the score 8-6 heading into the fourth. Houghton's second goal of the game spurred a fourth quarter rally that saw the junior net three more goals while leading the Bison back from a three-goal deficit. Houghton tied the game twice, at 9-9 and 10-10, before setting-up Dube for the game-winner in the finals seconds. 

Wellesley sophomore Anna Blake Patrick (Portland, Ore.) made 12 saves on 23 Nichols shots in the setback (1-4). Sophomore Briar Slattery (Woodstock, Ontario) turned back four shots in the win (6-0). Nichols finished with 27-17 advantage in shots and 17-8 edge in draw controls. The Blue had a slight edge in ground balls, 23-22.

Wellesley travels to Clark for a 1:00 PM NEWMAC contest on Saturday, March 23. Nichols heads to Emerson on Monday, March 25 for a 6:00 PM game.