MILTON, Mass. – The Curry College women's lacrosse team defeated Simmons College, 11-9 in non-conference action on Tuesday afternoon at the Walter M. Katz Field. With the win the Colonels improve to 4-7 overall. The loss drops the Sharks to 7-6 on the season.
Curry netted the first five goals of the contest to take a 5-0 lead in the first 16 minutes of play. Sophomore Courtney Lima (New Bedford, Mass.) got the Colonels on the board just 2:08 into the half off a feed from classmate Leona Stevens (Kingston, Mass.). Stevens tallied her first of three goals for a hat trick minutes later off a free position shot. Sophomore Kayla Merritt (Attleboro, Mass.) earned an unassisted goal for a 3-0 score. Freshman Allie Wysocki (South Hadley, Mass.) fired one in all alone past Simmons' freshman goalie Cat Gross (Beverly, Mass.). With 14 minutes remaining in the half Stevens scored off another free position opportunity. The Sharks called a time out and after winning the ensuing draw control went on a four-goal run to cut the Colonels lead down to one and held them scoreless heading into halftime. Junior Mallory Cottam (Hope, R.I.) got scoring frenzy started with 13:39 showing on the clock. Cottam got help from sophomore Amina Mansouri (Revere, Mass.). Just 39 seconds later senior Kasey Fries (Bridgewater, Mass.) tallied her first of four goals in the game off a free position shot. The Sharks took advantage of a man-up opportunity at 11:37 when sophomore Kingsley Richards (Lexington, Mass.) took the ball to net unassisted. With under five minutes to play Fries got a pass from freshman Molly Reinhold (Mystic, Conn.) to finish the half.
The squads traded goals for the first eight minutes of the second stanza. Simmons struck first when Fries assisted junior Lauren Williams (Bowdoinham, Maine). Curry's sophomore Abby Dubel (Wolfeboro, N.H.) answered back with her first of four in the half. Her goal was scored off a free position when her team was a man-up. Reinhold tied the game at six with an unassisted goal for the Sharks. The Colonels netted back to back tallies with Stevens firing one in off a feed from freshman Katie Parker (Branford, Conn.). Dubel extended Curry's lead to two when she netted one off an assist from Lima. Simmons evened the score again with two scores just two minutes after Dubels. Fries got her third with help from classmate Jolene Potter (Readfield, Maine) followed by Reinhold with an unassisted goal for an 8-8 score. Nine minutes went by before another goal was tallied. Curry went on a three-goal scoring spree to take an 11-8 lead. The Colonels got goals off the sticks of Dubel who scored unassisted, Wysocki off a feed from freshman Lily Ashford (Atkinson, N.H.) and Dubel with her four and final off a free position. Strong defense from Curry and their freshman goalie Amy Collard (Lakeville, Mass.) held the Sharks to just one more tally from Fries to get the 11-9 victory.
Dubel and Stevens led the Colonels with four points respectively. Stevens netted a hat trick while helping on one. Dubel tallied four goals for her four points. Ashford led the team in draw controls with five. Sophomore Abigail Roy (Nashua, N.H.) was strong in the midfield as she scooped up two ground balls, won two draw controls and had three caused turnovers. On defense junior Harper Meakin (Marblehead, Mass.) enjoyed a great day as she had three caused turnovers.
Fries led Simmons with a game-high five points on four goals and an assist. Cottom won a game-high six draw controls.
Collard picked up the win in the cage for Curry with 10 saves. Gross made an impressive 15 stops in net in the loss for Simmons.
Curry will next play on Saturday as they host Commonwealth Coast Conference opponent Endicott College at 12:00 p.m.