Box Score Southern Maine Gets First Win, Down UMaine Farmington 16-7
GORHAM, Maine -- The University of Southern Maine women's lacrosse team scored 13 unanswered goals to overcome a two-goal first-half deficit en route to a 16-7 victory over visiting University of Maine at Farmington in a non-conference game Thursday afternoon at Hannaford Field.
The win was the first of the season for the Huskies and first-year head coach Ashley Dyer after five losses to open the season. The Beavers remain winless on the season after four outings.
Down 5-3 in the latter stages of the first half, the Huskies scored twice to pull even, then scored 11 consecutive goals in the second half to pull away. Juniors Anh Nguyen (South Portland, Maine) and Sarah Pelligrinelli (Southington, Conn.) scored the two late first-half goals that leveled the score at halftime.
Senior Nicole LaPlante (South Portland, Maine) put the Huskies ahead for good converting a free-position attempt two minutes into the second stanza. Pelligrinelli converted another free-position attempt 42 seconds later, and the Huskies methodically pulled away over the next 25 minutes increasing their lead to 16-5 before the Beavers finally found the net.
Sophomore Lauren Lessard (Lewiston, Maine/Kents Hill) paced the Huskies offense with a six-point day. Lessard scored a game-high five goals and passed off one assist. Laplante finished with four goals while Nguyen had three goals and two assists. Pelligrinelli scored two goals.
Junior goalie Caley Presby (Portland, Maine/Deering) earned her first win of the season stopping seven shots. Sophomore Heather Everett (Waterboro, Maine/Massabesic) scooped up a game-high nine ground balls and caused three turnovers.
For UMF, junior Ayla Allen (Rumford, Maine/Mountain Valley) had a hat trick. Freshman Sierra Gilley (Harpswell, Maine/Mt. Ararat) had a goal and passed out two assists, and rookie Carly Raymond (Topsham, Maine/Mt. Ararat) had a goal and one assist.
Sophomore goalie Patty Smith (Gorham, Maine) made 16 saves in the UMF cage.
UMF took a 1-0 lead 23 seconds into the game as Allen beat Presby after taking a feed from Gilley. USM responded with goals by Lessard and Nguyen within a span of 1:20. Allen scored twice to spark a three-goal run by the Beavers that gave the visitors a 4-2 lead with 16:45 to play in the half. Laplante and Raymond traded goals 49 seconds apart to leave the Beavers with a 5-3 advantage with 11:30 to play.
Nguyen cut the deficit to one 8:29 before halftime, and Pelligrinelli tied the score at the 5:00 mark scoring a free-position goal.
Southern Maine had the edge in shots, 41-23, and ground balls, 42-27. Both sides had 12 draw controls.
Southern Maine, in the middle of a four games in six-day stretch, opens Little East Conference play on Saturday (12:00 p.m.) hosting Keene State College. UMaine Farmington travels to Husson University on Tuesday (6:30 p.m.) for a North Atlantic Conference match.
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