Colby College Women’s lacrosse wins, will host playoff game

Kelsey Bowen had two goals Wednesday. (Dean Denis Photography)

LEWISTON, Maine — The Colby College women’s lacrosse team earned a huge road win for the right to play at home Saturday in a New England Small College Athletic Conference quarterfinal game.

In a rare battle between two teams ranked the same in the national poll, 10th-ranked Colby took an 8-6 win over 10th-ranked Bates College on Wednesday.

 

The Mules will be the fourth seed in the NESCAC playoffs and will get a rematch against fifth-seeded Bates on Saturday at noon at Bill Alfond Field. Colby also clinched the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin (CBB) title after winning Wednesday and beating Bowdoin earlier in the season.

The two teams came into Wednesday’s game ranked 10th, with the same overall record of 11-3, and the same league record of 6-3. So it was not a surprise that the first half ended in a 5-5 tie.

 

Colby midfielder Emilie Klein had a monster game, scoring the go-ahead goal in the second half. She also had a game-high five caused turnovers and three ground balls. Bates finished the game with four caused turnovers.

 

Lexie Perticone had two goals and two assists to lead the Mules. Kelsey Bowen and Gemma Bready each had two goals. Kendall Smith also scored for Colby.

 

Alex Briody had two goals and two assists for the Bobcats. However, the Mules held All-American attacker Moriah Greenstein to just three shots, no goals, and one assist.

 

Klein scored from Perticone with 25:50 left in the game to give Colby a 6-5 margin. Smith tallied from McGara DeWan with 18:51 left to give the Mules some breathing room. Bready’s unassisted goal with 10:24 remaining put the Mules up 8-5. Bates’ Allison Dewey scored the final goal of the game with 9:41 to play.

 

The Bobcats got off to a terrific start and led 3-0 after just 5:09 of action. Briody scored the first two goals and assisted on the third goal by Emma Noto.

 

The Mules settled down and Bready scored from Perticone with 17:06 remaining. Perticone followed with her first goal of the game with 15:51 to play.

 

In a crazy minute of play, the two teams combined for three goals. Camille Belletete scored from Briody with 14:49 to halftime. Bowen scored unassisted with 14:21 remaining and then got her other goal just 14 seconds later on a free-position shot to tie the game at 4-4.

 

Perticone put Colby up for the first time at 5-4 off a pass from Sasha Fritts with 12:55 remaining. The Bobcats tied the game 5-5 at the half when Sydney Howard scored with just two seconds left.

 

Sam Burch made five saves and had two ground balls for Colby. DeWan added two caused turnovers and two ground balls, while Maddie Hatch finished with three ground balls and two draw controls.

A concern for Colby heading into Saturday will be draw controls. The Bobcats had a 12-3 advantage in the game. Bates will need to cut back on turnovers after committing 23 to Colby’s 11.

Bates goalie Hannah Jeffrey had seven of her 12 saves in the second half.

 

2016 NESCAC Women’s Lacrosse Championship
Saturday, April 30 at Higher Seeds
Quarterfinal Games
No. 8 Williams at No. 1 Trinity – Noon
No. 7 Tufts at No. 2 Middlebury – Noon
No. 6 Hamilton at No. 3 Amherst – Noon
No. 5 Bates at No. 4 Colby – Noon

Saturday, May 7 at Highest Remaining Seed
Semifinal Games – Noon | 2:30 p.m.
Highest Remaining Seed vs. Lowest Remaining Seed
Remaining Quarterfinal Round Winners

Sunday, May 8 at Semifinal Site
Final – Noon
Semifinal Winners

Colby 8, Bates 6

Colby……………  5  3 –  8

Bates……………  5  1 –  6

 

Colby SCORING: GOALS: Lexie Perticone 2; Kelsey Bowen 2; Gemma Bready

2; Emilie Klein 1; Kendall Smith 1.

 

ASSISTS: Lexie Perticone 2; McGara DeWan 1; Sasha Fritts 1.

Bates 

 

SCORING: GOALS: Alex Briody 2; Allison Dewey 1; Sydney Howard 1;

Emma Noto 1; Camille Belletete 1.

 

ASSISTS: Alex Briody 2; Drew Barry 1; Moriah Greenstein 1.

 

Colby GROUND BALLS 20: Maddie Hatch 3; Emilie Klein 3; Sam Burch 2;

McGara DeWan 2; Abby Hooper 2; Emma Marjollet 2; Lexie Perticone 2;

Kelsey Bowen 1; Brittany Chin 1; Sasha Fritts 1; Kendall Smith 1.

 

Bates GROUND BALLS 13: Allison Dewey 3; Kaileigh Maguire 3; Alex

Briody 2; Hannah Jeffrey 2; Mikaela Bradley 1; Cara Cappellini 1; Kara

Le 1.

 

Colby TURNOVERS CAUSED 12: Emilie Klein 5; McGara DeWan 2; Gemma

Bready 1; Jackie Brokaw 1; Sasha Fritts 1; Kelly Gibney 1; Abby Hooper

1.

 

Bates TURNOVERS CAUSED 4: Allison Dewey 3; Kaileigh Maguire 1.

 

SHOTS – Colby 22; Bates 15.

 

SHOTS ON GOAL – Colby 20; Bates 11.

 

TURNOVERS – Colby 11; Bates 23.

 

DRAW CONTROLS – Colby 3, Bates 12

 

CLEARS – Colby 18-23; Bates 13-19.

 

GOALIES – COLBY: Sam Burch (60:00 minutes, 10 shots-5 saves, 6 GA)

, TEAM (00:00, 1-1, 0); BATES: Hannah Jeffrey (60:00, 20-12, 8).