After being tied at halftime, Southern Vermont College saw Johnson State College pull away in the second period for a 20-13 win Tuesday afternoon in non-conference women's lacrosse action at Everett Field.
The Badgers (3-8) outscored the Mountaineers (3-11) by a 12-5 tally in the final 30 minutes of play to walk out with the victory in their final game of the season.
SVC is next scheduled to host Bay Path University on Saturday for a 1 p.m. New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) contest at Everett Field. With Becker College's win at Mitchell College Tuesday, Southern Vermont has secured a berth in next week's Conference postseason tournament.
Mountaineer sophomore Emily Lesure (Cheshire, Mass.) tied the game-high of seven goals while grabbing six ground balls and three draw controls. Sophomore Lauren Nesshoever (Rutland, Vt.) registered three goals and two ground balls as classmate Melodie Orrell (Gloucester, Mass.) put up a pair of scores and two draw controls in her first half of action. Freshman Maja Stanisic (Burlington, Vt.) scored her first collegiate goal on the day while classmate Savana Covey (Hampden, Maine) had an assist and five ground balls. Fellow freshman Taylor Brewer (Bennington, Vt.) scooped up seven ground balls and grabbed five draw controls in the effort.
JSC freshman Nichole Weeks (Barre, Vt.) was stellar for the Badgers, matching Lesure's seven goals while grabbing a game-high eight draw controls and a team-best seven ground balls. Freshman Kylie Aither (Hyde Park, Vt.) added six goals, an assist, five draw controls and three ground balls, and classmate Kaitlin Boucher (Barre, Vt.) had six draw controls, five ground balls and four caused turnovers in the win. Four other Badgers recorded at least one goal as freshman Shannon Rooney (Cambridge, Vt.) and junior Abigail Henry (East Barre, Vt.) notched two goals and two assists apiece.
Johnson State freshman goalie Samantha Jankowski (Andover, Minn.) was outstanding between the pipes, stopping 19 SVC shots in the win (3-10). Mountaineer freshman counterpart Kelsey Carrera (Queensbury, N.Y.) made 10 saves in the loss (3-8), also picking up a game-best 12 ground balls around her goal area.
The Badgers fared well on the clear, going 18-21 while holding SVC to a 19-28 clip. Johnson State, led by Weeks, held a 23-10 advantage on the draw and a 26-24 edge in turnovers.
The visitors went on the scoreboard first after a scoreless opening three minutes of action, going on top with an unassisted strike by Aither before Weeks put home her first of the day for a 2-0 advantage. Southern Vermont scored three of the next four goals, Lesure chalking up a pair while Nesshoever had a great flick shot off the grass to help tie it at 3-3 and force a Badger timeout.
After the stoppage, Weeks put in two straight goals to put her team up by as many, but Lesure responded with a pair of her own to even the match at 5-5. Orrell then took a feed from Covey and put it in the back of the net for the SVC edge, and she followed with an unassisted goal while her team was a man up. Nesshoever then scored on a free position shot to conclude a 5-0 Southern Vermont spurt that put the Mountaineers on top 8-5 with 1:16 to go.
As time in the first half waned, the momentum shifted to Johnson State as the Badgers scored three times in the final 45 seconds of the stanza, all coming off free position shots. Rooney put away the first before Weeks recorded her fourth score of the half. Aither then made the most of a foul call in the SVC crease with two seconds on the clock, firing home the game-tying goal to send the match to intermission knotted at 8-8.
The JSC offense came out of halftime on fire, scoring four goals in the first 1:17 of the second period with two straight off of Aither's stick. Lesure put one in to make it 12-9, but Weeks responded with back-to-back tallies to increase the Johnson State advantage. Stanisic registered her first collegiate goal before a Lesure marker cut it back to a three-point game (14-11) with 16:00 left to go.
Three unanswered goals through the next six minutes gave the visitors a comfortable cushion, and they would close out the game with a 5-2 upper hand in the final 10 minutes of action to wrap up their inaugural season on a good note with the 20-13 victory.
PHOTO CREDIT: Brendan Walsh