Women's LAX Falls Short at Elms

CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College's Nora McDonough scored a game-high six goals while Kayla Narey and Kathleen Tuechler netted five and four goals, respectively, to help pace the Blazers to a 27-8 victory over Mitchell College in Thursday evening's New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) women's lacrosse game at Leary Field. 

With the win, Elms improved to 3-8 overall, 1-1 in NECC action, while Mitchell moved to 1-6 on the season, 1-3 in league play.
 
In the opening nine minutes of play, Elms scored five of the first six goals as Tuechler and McDonough found the back of the net twice and Emily Dawson added a goal to give the Blazers a 5-1 lead.
 
Freshman Ashley Murtha fired in the first Mitchell goal. Following Elms' early rally, the Mariners responded with a stretch of four straight goals of their own that included two more markers from Murtha and two from freshman Sophie Spiller to knot the game at 5-5 with 17:19 to play in the first half.
 
From there, Elms scored 16 of the next 18 goals as Narey scored four times; McDonough and Ashley Cava drove in three goals apiece; Dawson and Jillian Pirog registered two strikes; and Brianna Lyons and Tuechler added a goal each during the run.
 
Murtha and Spiller each notched a goal for the Mariners to close out the half with the score set at 21-7 in favor of the Blazers.
 
In the second half, McDonough found nylon twice more, and Pirog and Narey netted a goal each, while Emily Brown and Danielle Jez each scored to cap the win.
 
Murtha beat the goalkeeper with 22:21 to play in the game to record her fifth goal of the contest. Spiller finished with three goals to record her first career hat trick.
 
Elms goalie Sarah Carpenter turned away three shots in the winning effort while junior Anysia Lombardo made 13 saves for the Mariners.
 
Narey led all players with four ground balls and added six draw controls while Tuechler earned nine draw controls in the winning effort.

Mitchell will next play at Sage College on Saturday, April 19 at 2 p.m.