Wellesley Slips Past Endicott, 10-9

BEVERLY, Mass. ­– The Endicott women's lacrosse team fell just short, 10-9, to the visiting Wellesley College Blue Wednesday evening at Hempstead Stadium in non-conference action.

Wellesley opened the game with the first two goals, before Endicott stormed back to take a 3-2 lead on junior midfielder Chelsea Burke's (Georgetown, Mass.) first career goal at the 16:20 mark of the first half on a feed from freshman defender Molly McMahon (Hanover, Mass.) picking up her first career assist.

The Blue then rattled off four straight goals to take a 6-3 lead into the break, as junior midfielder Nikki Sharkin (Summit, N.J.) tallied her second and third goals on her way to a first half hat trick.

Wellesley notched three goals to begin the second half as junior attack Mary Lemay (Longmeadow, Mass.) netted back-to-back scores for the Blue.

Endicott strung together six consecutive goals to tie the game at 9-9 with 7:06 to play in regulation on freshman midfielder Jaime Balboni's (Billerica, Mass.) unassisted deposit.

Wellesley's game-winning goal came courtesy of Lemay's free position shot with 0:04 on the clock.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• Endicott out-shot the Blue, 23-19.
• Junior goalie Maura Grady (Marblehead, Mass.) stopped six shots as she fell to 0-3 on the season.
• Freshman midfielder Ali Campbell (Lakeville, Mass.) won a team-high four draw controls.
• Junior midfielder Emily Whitney (Rye, N.H.) had a hat trick and added one assist as she currently is tied with Glenn with a team-leading six goals on the season.
• Sophomore attack Jess Glenn (Underhill, Vt.), Burke, McMahon, and Campbell all recorded one goal and one assist in the effort.
• Balboni extended her scoring streak to three games as she registered one goal tonight and tied for a game-high with senior defender Brenna Shannon (Stratham, N.H.) with three caused turnovers.
• Sophomore attack Erin McCarthy (Old Lyme, Conn.) also pushed her scoring streak to three games with one goal tonight.

FOR THE FOES

• Sharkin scored four goals as she took a game-high eight shots, had one assist, and scooped up a tied-for-game-high three ground balls, in addition to winning a game-high five draw controls.
• Lemay also fired off four goals (second half hat trick), including the game-winner, and had one assist.
• Junior goalie Wendy Nettleton (La Jolla, Calif.) made 10 saves as she improved to 2-1 on the season.
• The Blue had a stretch of seven straight goals from 11:17 of the first half to the 27:20 mark of the second half.

NOTES

• Endicott is 7-2 all-time against Wellesley and 3-2 at home dating back to the 2008 season.
• The Gulls had won the past six meetings against the Blue coming into the game, including a 10-8 win in Wellesley, Mass. in the most recent meeting on March 28, 2015, but the Blue snapped that streak tonight.

WHAT'S NEXT

Endicott (0-3, 0-0 CCC) is off until the Gulls will play two games in Clermont, Fla. over Spring Break against RPI on March 14 and Trinity (Conn.) on March 17. Wellesley (2-1, 0-0 NEWMAC) plays at Eastern Conn. St. on Saturday, March 12 at 12:00 p.m. 

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