Women’s Lacrosse Staves Off Late Rally By Daniel Webster College To Secure 17-12 Victory

Box Score

CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College junior attacker Chelsey Grabowski (South Hadley, Mass.) netted five goals and the Blazers held off a late second half rally by Daniel Webster College to post a 17-12 victory over the Eagles in Tuesday evening's non-conference women's lacrosse game at Leary Field.

Elms earned its first victory since April 20, 2009, snapping a 21-game losing streak to improve to 1-4 on the season. Daniel Webster moves to 0-2 overall.

After building a 10-4 lead over the first 30 minutes, Elms added to its cushion as Grabowski scored on a feed from senior attacker Melissa Meon (South Hadley, Mass.) at the 26:35 mark of the second half, before Meon added a score of her own 1:12 later to give the Blazers a 12-4 advantage.

Daniel Webster's Stephanie Zeman (Jefferson Township, N.J.) found the back of the net to cut the deficit to seven at 12-5 before Meon registered her fourth tally of the contest with 20:44 to play in the game to increase the lead back to eight at 13-5.

The Eagles then added a scoring strike each from Zeman and Samantha Cotoni (Groton, Mass.) to set the score at 13-7 before Elms responded with a goal from junior attacker Emily Walsh (Hadley, Mass.) and Grabowski to keep the lead at eight (15-7) with 10:40 on the clock.

Daniel Webster then scored five of the next six goals in a 5:40 window to cut the gap to four at 16-12 with 3:02 to play. Zeman and Cotoni each notched a pair of goals during the span and Alex Quintiliani (Manchester, Conn.) found the nylon for the first time in the game to highlight the rally for the Eagles.

With 1:23 left in the contest, Walsh fired in her third score of the afternoon to give Elms a 17-12 lead which it held to secure its first win of the 2011 season.

Elms' junior goalkeeper Annette Dzidek (Chicopee, Mass.) recorded 14 stops and earned her first collegiate win to improve to 1-4 on the season.

Grabowski, Meon, freshman midfielder Brianna Lyons (Canton, Mass.), and sophomore midfielder Catherine Duquette (Naples, Maine) each scored twice in the opening period, while Walsh and sophomore attacker Lauren Kalbach (West Harwich, Mass.) added one apiece to give the Blazers a 10-4 lead at intermission.

Meon finished with four scores and Walsh totaled three on the day, while Duquette and Lyons collected two goals each in the winning effort.

Zeman finished with six goals in the loss, while Cotoni scored four to highlight the effort for Daniel Webster. Laura Gianetti (Ashburnham, Mass.) notched 17 saves and suffered the loss to move to 0-2 on the season.

Zeman added 13 groundballs and won 11 draws, while Meon picked up nine groundballs for the Blazers and Lyons added 11 draw controls.

Elms returns to non-conference action on Thursday, March 31 when it travels to Pine Manor College for a 4:00 p.m. contest.