UMass Dartmouth Knocks Off Southern Maine in Women's Lax 17-8

Junior D Mira Kuni (file photo by Jason Johns).

DARTMOUTH, Mass. -- Seniors Erin Kish (Littleton, Mass.) and Julia DiPillo (Medway, Mass.) combined for 14 points, including 11 goals, to lead the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Corsairs to a 17-8 victory over the visiting University of Southern Maine Huskies in Little East Conference women's lacrosse action Saturday afternoon at Cressy Field.

            The Corsairs won their second straight game to improve to 7-3 overall and 1-1 in conference play.  The Huskies had their two-game winning streak stopped by the loss and fall to 5-4 overall and 0-2 in LEC games.

            Kish led all scorers with seven goals and one assist while DiPillo contributed four goals and two assists.  Classmate Leah Douty (Framingham, Mass.) chipped in with two goals and an assist.

            Junior Colleen Fleming (South Portland, Maine) led the Huskies with two goals and one assist.  She also had a game-high six draw controls.  Sophomore Ruth Nadeau (Bath, Maine) had two goals, and junior Aliza Jordan (Gorham, Maine) had a one goal, two assists and five draw controls.

            UMD junior Kaitlyn Burchill (Bridgewater, Mass./Bridgewater Raynham) started in goal and earned the win allowing five goals and making 10 saves in 48:05 of action.  Sophomore Bridget Harrington (Northampton, Mass.) came on to play the final 11:55 giving up three goals and stopping one shot.  USM junior goalie Hala Van Nostrand (Granby, Conn.) made four saves.

            Kish scored the first two goals of the game before Fleming and Nadeau countered for USM to make it 2-2 with 17:30 left in the half.  DiPillo's first goal of the game at 16:03 ignited a run of four consecutive Corsair goals.  Kish followed with two goals, and DiPillo scored her second.  Rookie Alex Farley (Buxton, Maine/Bonny Eagle) snapped the run of the UMD goals for USM to make it 6-3 with 7:18 remaining.

            DiPillo, Douty and senior Kasey Hayes (Medway, Mass.) scored for UMD in the final 4:28 to offset a second goal by Fleming to give the home side a 9-4 edge at the break.

            Nadeau's second goal of the day five minutes into the second half pulled the Huskies within four, but the visitors would get no closer as the Corsairs responded by scoring eight unanswered goals to increase their lead to 17-5.

            UMass Dartmouth outshot Southern Maine 33-25 and had a 26-12 advantage in ground balls.  USM won the battle of draw controls 17-9.

            Southern Maine plays next on Wednesday (6 p.m.) at Thomas College.  UMass Dartmouth is in action Tuesday night (7 p.m.) for a game at Worcester State University.