MANCHESTER, N.H. – The No. 23 Saint Anselm College women's lacrosse team fell to overtime to the College of Saint Rose on Saturday, 13-12.
Both squads see their seasons come to a close with the Hawks falling to 7-9 on the season and 5-8 in Northeast-10 Conference play while the Golden Knights improve to 9-8 overall and 5-8 in league play with the win.
Sophomore Alison Ferullo (North Andover, Mass.) tied a game-high four goals. Sophomore Jess Sullivan (Wrentham, Mass.) and senior Taylor Cobain (Smithfield, R.I.) netted three goals each while senior Jenna Balboni (Billerica, Mass.) found the back of the cage twice. Sullivan was tied for a game-high five points, adding two assists to her three goals.
Balboni closes the season as the Hawks points leader with 61 coming from 40 goals and 21 assists. She is the first women's lacrosse student-athlete to reach at least 60 points in a single season since the 2018 season. Balboni currently ranks ninth all-time in program history with 154 career points, having scored 114 goals and posted 40 assists. She ranks seventh in goals per game (2.43) and is fifth all-time in free position goals (38).
Senior Annie Richards (Reading, Mass.) concludes her collegiate career as the Saint Anselm all-time leader in assists with 101. She is the first women's lacrosse student-athlete to reach 100 assists and leads the program with an average of 1.80 assists per game.
Junior Lexi Palmisano (Woburn, Mass.) scored a team-high 45 goals in 2022 which are also the most in a single season since 2018.
Senior Grace Young (Merrimack, N.H.) made 12 saves in the cage for the Hawks, marking her fourth consecutive game with double digit saves.
Young ranks fourth all-time time in career-saves with 320 while ranking second in saves per game (8.21) and third in save percentage (.472). Young owns the third best goals-against average (10.72) and is tied for third with 19 wins.
Ferullo netted a down goal for the Hawks with 5:17 left in the fourth quarter to give Saint Anselm an 11-9 lead but a three-goal run by the Golden Knights gave them their first lead of the game on Daria Bock's fourth goal of the game, coming with 2:25 left to play at 12-11. However, Cobain responded with her third goal of the day for the Hawks 59 seconds later.
After winning the ensuing draw control, Saint Rose took a timeout in an attempt to draw up what could potentially be the game-winning play but the Hawks defense did not allow a shot attempt which forced the game to overtime.
Saint Rose would win the draw control and would score the game-winner at 4:24 of the first extra period as Katy McPeak cashed in on a free-position goal to give the hosts a 13-12 overtime win. Kaitlyn Jolly and McPeak both had free-position chances in the first minute of overtime but one shot went wide and Young turned aside the other.
Earlier in the contest, Cobain opened the scoring at 13:33 of the first quarter before Saint Rose responded with its first goal of the game. Cobain and Balboni netted consecutive goals for the Hawks but a Bock tally in the final minute made the score 3-2 at the end of the first.
McPeak netted her first of the game less than one minute into the second quarter but Saint Anselm netted four consecutive goals to take a 7-3 lead. Balboni, Sullivan, and Ferullo cashed in on the scoring run. In the final 5:39 of the first half, Saint Rose netted three of four goals to send the teams to the half with the Hawks leading, 8-6.
The Golden Knights outscored the Hawks by a 3-2 margin in the third quarter which gave the Hawks a one-goal edge headed to the fourth at 10-9.
Saint Rose held a 34-19 advantage in shots and a 25-14 edge in shots on goal. The Hawks were 12-for-16 in clears while the Golden Knights were 14-of-18. Saint Rose had a slight lead in draw controls, collecting 16 compared to 13 for Saint Anslem.
