MILTON, Mass. – The Curry College Women's lacrosse team defeated Nichols College, 12-9 in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) action Saturday afternoon at the Walter M. Katz Field. The victory was their fourth consecutive and fell on senior day as the squad honored their five seniors. With the win the Colonels improve to 10-4 on the season and 3-2 in the conference while the loss drops the Bison to 2-11 overall and 0-5 in the CCC.
Curry was led by five-point efforts from senior Alexis Cran (Branford, Conn.) and junior Malorie Knowlton (Norfolk, Mass.). Cran netted two goals and dished out three assists to go along with her six groundballs, six caused turnovers and nine draw controls. Knowlton tallied four goals and helped on one. She also caused four turnovers, won two draw controls and collected three groundballs.
Four players put up two points with senior Hanna Pepper (Wayland, Mass.) and junior Lauren Carroll (Providence, R.I.) scoring twice. Juniors Kelly Parker (Branford, Conn.) and Rachael Lawrence (Hanover, Mass.) each had a goal and an assist.
The Bison were led by junior Olivia Morawski (Fairfield, Conn.) and sophomore Lindsay O'Connell (Danvers, Mass.) who both scored a pair of goals with O'Connell adding an assist. Junior Brooke Marion (South Hadley, Mass.) led the way in the assist department finishing with three. Nichols had five other players who registered a goal to round out their score sheet.
Curry started the first period scoring six unanswered goals before Nichols stopped the run with 9:14 left to play. Carroll, Pepper and Parker netted the first three just under two minutes apart from each other. Knowlton finished the run with a hat trick of her own to put the score at 6-0 in favor of the Colonels.
The Bison finally got on the board after Marion assisted junior Kelly Downey (Waltham, Mass.). Senior Alexa Smith (Salem, N.H.) cut the deficit down to four with three minutes remaining until the break. Cran responded for Curry but Nichols would close out the scoring with 1:16 showing on the clock. Freshman Kristen Sullivan (Arlington, Mass.) found the back of the net to bring the score to 7-3 heading into halftime.
The Bison's O'Connell opened the scoring in the second period with just 55 seconds off the clock. The Colonels' Cran and Carroll answered back with tallies 11 seconds apart to extend Curry's lead to five. The advantage however was cut down to only one after Nichols went on a scoring spree over a span of six minutes. The Bison rattled off four-straight goals to bring the score to 9-8 with 20 minutes still showing on the scoreboard. Nichols Morawski, sophomore Katherine MacNutt (New Milford, Conn.), Melissa LaFleur (Chicopee, Mass.) and O'Connell each netted one.
The Colonels wouldn't waver however and responded with a three-goal run of their own, courtesy of Pepper, Knowlton and Lawrence to distance the lead to 12-8. Morawski would connect one more time for the Bison to put the score at the eventual final of 12-9.
Senior goalkeeper Annie Douglas (Manchester, N.H.) recorded seven saves for her 10th win in net. Junior Katherine Cotton (Kennebunk, Maine) made and impressive 20 stops in goal while dropping her record to 2-11.
Curry returns to action Wednesday as they travel to Western New England for another conference matchup slated for 4:00 p.m. Nichols is set to host Endicott College, also on Wednesday, for a conference game.
