NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Southern Connecticut women's lacrosse defeated Bentley, 18-10, in a Northeast 10 Conference matchup at Jess Dow Field. The win was the Owls first against Bentley in program history while also a program record 11th win of the season. Southern improved to 11-3 overall and 5-2 in conference play whiel Bentley dropped to 6-7 overall and 4-3 in the NE10.
Anna Meserve led the Owls with five goals while Macy Vail extended her goal-scoring streak to 34 games with a four goal, one assist outing. Rebecca Sibley and Abigail Nolan both scored twice and also added n assist while Allie Welder had one goal and one assist while also leading the Owls with six draw controls and four caused turnovers. Caelen Connors stopped seven shots in goal.
Southern scored four-straight goals in the game's first five minutes on markers from Merserve and Nolan before Sibley scored twice to give Southern a 4-0 lead. After Bentley answered with back-to-back goals – one to end the first quarter and one to start the second – Southern responded with four unanswered goals to take an 8-2 lead, with three coming from Merseve with Mia Hartmann's fourth goal of the season mixed in. Welder scored off a pass from Madison Olmstead as the Owls took a 9-4 lead into halftime.
Coming out of the break, Merserve scored her 30th goal of the season, sandwiched between a pair of Falcons goals as Bentley threatened early in the second half and pulled within four goals, 10-6. Vail, held scoreless up to that point, scored Southern's next three goals to push Southern's lead to 13-7. Bentley scored followed by a goal by Olmstead and then another Bentley goal as the Falcons made it 14-9 with 7:01 to play.
Down the stretch, Southern used goals from Vail, Nolan, Taryn Ugrin and Sofia Boucher over a four-minute span before Bentley managed to sneak one in the goal in the closing minute.
With the regular season coming to an end next week, the Owls are looking at a pair of must-win contests in order to secure a home game for the upcoming NE10 Championship Tournament, which is set to begin on Saturday, Apr. 25. The Owls will travel to Saint Anselm on Saturday, April 18 before taking on first-place Adelphi on Tuesday, Apr. 21.
