Gulls Close Out 2016 Regular Season With 12-9 Victory Over UNE

BEVERLY, Mass. – The Endicott women's lacrosse team rallied from an early deficit to defeat visiting University of New England, 12-9, Tuesday evening at Hempstead Stadium in the final regular season Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) matchup.

The Nor'easters stormed out to a fast start as they built a 4-0 lead with 22:51 to play in the first half before freshman midfielder Jackie Neilsen (Agawam, Mass.) got the Gulls on a scoreboard on a feed from junior midfielder Emily Whitney (Rye, N.H.) at the 21:29 minute mark.

UNE led 6-3 for its last lead of the game before Endicott took control in the first half with five straight goals, including freshman midfielder Ali Campbell's (Lakeville, Mass.) unassisted tally to give the Gulls their first lead of the day (7-6 with 7:46 remaining) and headed into halftime with an 8-7 advantage.

The Nor'easters tied it up at 8-all to begin the second half on junior midfielder Carly Sheehan's (South Kingstown, R.I.) strike from freshman attack Nicole Carvalho (South Kingstown, R.I.) at 25:05.

The Gulls rattled off four in a row, including sophomore midfielder Olivia Larson's (Cheshire, Conn.) free-position goal to complete her hat trick, which gave the Gulls a 9-8 edge with 21:53 remaining in regulation and the team never looked back.

UNE managed to tack on one more at 2:19 before the final buzzer sounded, but it proved to be too late to stage a comeback as junior Maura Grady (Marblehead, Mass.) improved to 5-9 in goal with six saves in the effort.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• Whitney stretched her scoring streak to seven straight games with two goals, two assists, and a season-high/team-high three caused turnovers on the day.
• Whitney has scored in 14 of the Gulls' 16 games this season.
• Sophomore attack Erin McCarthy (Old Lyme, Conn.) tied her career high with a game-high four goals as she netted two in each half.
• Freshman midfielder Jaime Balboni (Billerica, Mass.) won a team-high four draw controls.
• Junior midfielder Chelsea Burke (Georgetown, Mass.) registered her first career free-position goal as her fourth goal of the season.
• UNE committed 25 fouls compared to Endicott's nine.

FOR THE FOES

• Senior netminder Courtney Kendall (Waltham, Mass.) stopped five shots as she fell to 9-5 on the year.
• Sophomore defender Jolena Lampron (Lyman, Maine) caused a game-high six turnovers and scooped up a game-high four ground balls alongside senior defender Lauryn Huck (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.) as Endicott turned the ball over 21 times compared to UNE's 19.
• Freshman midfielder Korinne Bohunsky (Eliot, Maine) won a game-high five draw controls and tallied a team-high two assists (tied for game-high).
• Sheehan, junior midfielder Jocelyn Davee (Freeport, Maine) and sophomore midfielder Paige St. George (Manchester, N.H.) each potted a pair of goals for the Nor'easters.

NOTES

• The Gulls are 16-5 all-time and 9-2 at home all-time against UNE, dating back prior to the 2001 season.
• Endicott has won 16 straight against the Nor'easters, including a narrow 12-11 victory in Biddeford, Maine in the most recent meeting before today on April 8, 2015.

WHAT'S NEXT

Endicott (7-9, 6-2 CCC) and UNE (10-6, 6-2 CCC) both await CCC postseason seeds to be announced soon as the CCC Quarterfinals will begin on Saturday, April 30th with the CCC Semifinals set for Wednesday, May 4th and CCC Championship on Saturday, May 7th, 2016. 

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