Worcester, Mass. – The University of Southern Maine women's lacrosse team prevailed in a thrilling 11-10 non-conference contest on the road against Worcester State University on Friday evening. The fourth quarter of the contest featured senior Rachel Shanks (Naples, Maine/Lake Region) giving the Huskies the lead twice only to have the Lancers tie the game each time before junior Paige Rinaldi (Freeport, Maine) scored what proved to be the game-winning goal with 3:39 left to play. Rinaldi came up big on defense as well and intercepted a pass in the final minute to put an end to the Lancers' last charge.
 
When and Where: March 24, 2023 – Worcester, Mass. – John F. Coughlin Field
 
The Records: Southern Maine: 3-5, Worcester State: 2-4
 
The Goalies: 
USM: Cece Racine (Lewiston, Maine): 3-4, 17 saves, 10 goals allowed, .630 save percentage
WSU: Savanna Rosado: 2-3, seven saves, 11 goals allowed, .389 save percentage
 
How It Happened:

• The first quarter was all Huskies as Southern Maine jumped out to a 4-0 lead behind goals from junior Kiaya Gatchell (Portland, Maine/Deering), freshman Cierra Hill (Pembroke, N.H./Pembroke Academy) and two from Shanks.
• The Lancers countered with four straight goals of their own to tie the game before freshman Molly Black (Windham, Maine) reclaimed the lead for the Huskies with her first career free position goal.
• Worcester State tied the game at 5-5 with 2:40 left in the half thanks to Shea Jarvis' third goal of the quarter.
• Shanks scored with 13 seconds left in the half to give the Huskies the lead at halftime with Gatchell providing the assist.
• Ashley Hurley tied the game for the Lancers and Worcester State added two more goals from Mckayla Fisher in the first four minutes of the third to take a 9-6 lead.
• Hill cut the lead to 8-7 with a woman up goal and Shanks tied the game at 8-8 on a free position shot with 41 seconds left in the third. Shanks scored again in the first minute of the fourth to put Southern Maine ahead.
• The back-and-forth battle continued throughout the quarter as the Lancers tied the game at 9-9 thanks to a goal by Fisher before Shanks briefly put the Huskies ahead less than a minute later only to have the Lancer connection of Fisher to Hurley score the equalizer to make it 10-10.
• With 3:39 left to play Rinaldi gave the Huskies the lead after receiving a pass from Gatchell.
• Racine made a big save on the free position attempt by Molly Witkowski to keep the Huskies ahead with less than three minutes to play and in the final minute Rinaldi reached up to intercept a pass by Fisher to extinguish the threat and allow the Huskies to come away with the win.

Inside The Stats:

• Shanks scored six goals for the second game in a row.
• Gatchell recorded four points off a goal and three assists.
• Jarvis and Fisher each scored three goals and recorded assists for the Lancers while Hurley had two goals and two assists.
• Junior Jillian Nichols (Gorham, Maine) also recorded an assist for the Huskies.
• Freshman Britney Hill (Pembroke, N.H./Pembroke Academy) led the Huskies in ground balls with five.
• Worcester State won 17 draw controls while only losing seven and won the ground ball battle 28-24.

Up Next: The Huskies have now won back-to-back games and will look to extend their winning streak to three games on Wednesday against Wellesley College at 4PM at home.