Women's Lacrosse Eliminated from NEWLA Tournament with 21-14 Loss at Westfield State
Westfield, Mass. – Junior Maura Stack (Wilbraham, Mass.) had a game-high eight goals to lead Westfield State University to a 21-14 victory over Framingham State University in a New England Women's Lacrosse Alliance (NEWLA) postseason tournament semifinal game on Wednesday evening.
Junior Chelsea Temple (Rutland, VT) led the Rams offense in the game with a team-high six goals, while senior Kerry Kiley (Mansfield, Mass.) tallied five including her 200th career goal. Kiley had team-highs of six draw controls, five caused turnovers and four ground balls. Classmate Brittany McLean (Walpole, Mass.) added a goal and two helpers in the game for the Rams.
Spurred by two goals from Stack, Westfield jumped out to a 4-0 lead over Framingham (9-7) in the opening 10 minutes. But the scrappy Rams regrouped to pulled within a goal, 6-5, with 10:34 remaining in the first half.
The Owls then scored five of the next six goals, including a goal by freshman Stephanie Lenhardt (Duxbury, Mass.) as the horn sounded ending the first half.
Senior Nicole DiPilato (Shrewsbury, Mass.) capped the scoring spurt by tallying two goals at the outset of the second half to give the Owls a 13-6 lead.
The Owls took their biggest lead, 19-9, midway through the second stanza on another DiPilato goal.
DiPilato was Westfield's second leading scorer with seven points (three goals, four assists), while Stack had a game-high nine points (eight goals, one assist). Lenhardt finished with six points (three goals, three assists) and senior Carly Keeley (Feeding Hills, Mass.) had three goals and two assists.
The Rams cut the lead to six, 20-14, with 4:48 remaining when Kiley scored her fifth goal of the game the 200th of her career.
No. 2 seed Westfield (9-7) advances to the NEWLA championship game, where its plays archrival and No. 1 seed Bridgewater University. The NEWLA championship game is scheduled for Saturday, May 5, at Bridgewater beginning at 7 p.m. The Rams are now 9-7 on the year and await word of a possible ECAC berth next week.
Bridgewater, 11-7 overall and 8-0 during the NEWLA regular season, handed Westfield its only league loss, 9-5, on April 21. Bridgewater advanced to the championship game by pulling away from Fitchburg State for a 13-2 semifinals victory on Wednesday evening.
Release courtesy of Westfield Sports Information.