Women's lacrosse rallies past Curry, into TCCC Championship

Beverly, Mass. – The defending-champion Endicott women’s lacrosse team rallied from a goal down in the final minute to stun visiting Curry, 13-12, in a The Commonwealth Coast Conference (TCCC) Tournament semifinal matchup under the lights of Endicott Stadium.  Senior Kellie Cunningham (Derry, N.H.) pulled the Gulls even with the Colonels with just 42 seconds remaining before sophomore Holly Davis (Guilford, Conn.) scored the game winner with seven ticks left on the clock to propel the Blue and Green into the title game for the seventh straight year.

 

Curry erased a three-goal deficit in the final ten minutes on the strength of four unanswered goals to take a 12-11 lead.  Junior Morgan DeShaw (Danville, N.H.) found Cunningham at the top of the circle to level the game at 12 with less than a minute to play.  Cunningham secured the ensuing draw control and found classmate Molly Sowles (Yarmouth, Maine) behind the net as the clock ran down.  Sowles connected with Davis with less than ten seconds to go and the sophomore buried the winner to cap the dramatic comeback.

 

Endicott, in pursuit of its sixth straight TCCC Championship, will look to avenge its only regular-season conference loss when it travels to Western New England on Saturday (May 7) with an NCAA Tournament berth on the line. 

 

A matchup of the conference’s two highest scoring teams proved to be anything but thanks in large part to the play of both goalies.  Curry’s Maria Lynch (Billerica, Mass.) made nine stops including six in the second half while Endicott’s Leah Neff (South Berwick, Maine) finished with ten. 

 

­The visitors came out firing on a cylinders, scoring three straight in the first four minutes to take an early 3-0 lead.  TCCC Player of the Year Ashley Hansbury (Chelmsford, Mass.) scored the first two before assisting on the third, an Ana Bottary (Hull, Mass.) goal at 26:09. 

 

The Gulls flipped the script over the next eight minutes, scoring three unanswered goals from three different scorers to make it 3-3.  Meanwhile, Neff denied the Colonels on four straight shots to keep the Gulls in the game. 

 

Senior Jesse Koffman (Andover, Mass.) scored from the free position with 8:38 left in the first half to give Curry a slim 4-3 advantage.

 

Endicott responded with three straight to close out the half and take a 6-4 lead into the break.  Sophomore attack Kelly Tierney (South Hadley, Mass.) scored from the free position with just over five minutes to play before Davis gave the Gulls a 5-4 lead 17 seconds later.  Tierney and Sowles connected with one tick left in the half to give EC a two-goal cushion after 30 minutes of play.

 

Curry’s Lauren Glavin (Billerica, Mass.) opened the second half scoring with an unassisted tally just under two minutes in.  Sophomore Lauren Todd (Newfields, N.H.) answered with her only score of the day before Glavin and Bottary recorded back-to-back goals 22 seconds apart to tie the game at seven. 

 

DeShaw finally broke through with two straight goals from the free position to give the Gulls a 9-7 lead.  Junior Michelle Loizzo (Longmeadow, Mass.) stretched the lead to three with a goal of her own from the free position at 16:24.

 

Glavin and sophomore Caitlin Pratt (Bow, N.H.) exchanged goals just over 90 seconds apart before Hansbury erupted for three straight to knot the game at 11. 

 

The three-time conference player of the year recorded her 100^th goal of the season with 9:04 remaining and proceeded to tack on two more over the next four minutes to wipe out a three-goal deficit.

 

Koffman gave Curry its final lead of the game with a goal from the free position at 3:18.  Lynch disavowed two straight shots by the Gulls in the final two-plus minutes before Cunningham and Davis supplied the late-game heroics.  Senior Brittany Kane (Scarborough, Maine) controlled the game’s final draw and ran out the clock to secure the victory.    

 

Davis finished with a team-high three goals while DeShaw added two to go along with two assists in the win.  Cunningham paired two goals with a game-high six draw controls for the Gulls, who improve to 13-6 on the year.

 

Hansbury tallied a game-high five goals while Glavin chipped in three in the setback.  Bottary and Koffman each scored twice for the Colonels, who finish the season 15-4.

 

Endicott and Western New England (15-4) meet in the TCCC Tournament for the fourth straight year but for the first time on the conference’s biggest stage.