PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. – The Saint Anselm College women's lacrosse team suffered a 17-11 loss to nationally ranked No. 9 Pace in the final game of the regular season on Wednesday night. Sophomore
Alyssa Hill (Brookline, N.H.) led the Hawks with three goals and two assists for five points in the loss.
UP NEXT:
- Saint Anselm has earned the No. 5 seed in the upcoming Northeast-10 Conference (NE10) Women's Lacrosse Championship. They will travel to Waltham, Mass. to take on No. 4 seed Bentley in the NE10 Quarterfinals on Saturday, April 26th at 4:00 p.m.
Score: Saint Anselm 11, No. 9 Pace 17
Records: Saint Anselm (11-5, 6-4 NE10), No. 9 Pace (14-3, 9-1 NE10)
Location: Pleasantville, N.Y. (Northwell Stadium)
Date: Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Attendance: 250
HOW IT HAPPENED:
- Abigail O'Connor opened the scoring for Pace, giving them a 1-0 lead just 40 seconds in.
- A little over a minute later, Saint Anselm was called for a penalty, giving Pace a player-up situation. However, Ayla McDermod (Hanover, Mass.) scored a player-down goal for the Hawks at the other end to tie the game at 1-1.
- The Setters attempted the next two shots on goal, but senior goaltender Elizabeth Driscoll (Marblehead, Mass.) stopped both for the Hawks to keep the game tied.
- Midway through the opening quarter, Hill converted on a free-position shot for Saint Anselm to give them their first lead of the night.
- 23 seconds later, and during a player-up scenario, senior Abigail Christmas (Elmira, N.Y.) scored for the Hawks off a pass from Hill and made it a 3-1 game. Both goalies made one save in the final few minutes of the quarter as the Hawks held a two-goal lead after the first 15 minutes.
- The Setters wasted little time in the second quarter as Nikki Mottes scored less than a minute in to cut the deficit to one. Shortly after, Maddie Schubert tied the score with a successful free-position shot.
- Saint Anselm responded at the other end with Christmas feeding senior Samantha Rivet (Sudbury, Mass.) for another Hawks score.
- Seconds after the ensuing draw control, the Hawks had a player sent off with a green card. On the player-up opportunity, Gigi Genovese capitalized for the Setters by scoring on another free-position shot to once again tie things up at 4-4.
- Pace committed a penalty of their own 15 seconds after tying the game and found themselves down a player. Sophomore Julia Rowley (Dover, N.H.) got in on the action for Saint Anselm, scoring off a pass from junior Brianna Fruci (Walpole, Mass.) as the Hawks regained the lead.
- Driscoll came up with a couple of big stops for the Hawks over the next few minutes. She denied consecutive scoring chances by O'Connor and Mackenzie Carita to keep her team in front.
- That allowed Saint Anselm to extend its lead as at the other end, McDermod scored her second goal of the game on a free-position chance. In the final two minutes of the half, Christmas scored a player-down goal for the Hawks, and senior Jaycie Balboni (Billerica, Mass.) added a free-position score that made it 8-4 in favor of the visitors.
- Carita found the back of the net for the Setters with eight seconds left in the half, but the Hawks maintained an 8-5 lead at halftime.
- The Hawks got their offense going early in the third quarter, firing the first three shots on goal of the half. Setters goaltender Samantha Tanguay stopped the first two, but Hill broke through for the visitors on the third attempt to give them a four-goal lead six minutes into the period.
- Over the next few minutes, Pace responded with four unanswered goals to tie the score at 9-9. Despite three more saves by Driscoll, four different players scored for the Setters during that stretch, with three of those goals being assisted.
- Saint Anselm called a timeout to regroup, which seemed to pay off as Rivet notched her second score of the game with two minutes remaining in the third to give the Hawks a 10-9 edge.
- The Setters started to shift the momentum early in the fourth quarter. They generated three quality scoring chances, but Driscoll was up to the task and made three huge saves for the Hawks, including one on a free-position shot by Annie Sheehan.
- After a successful clear following that denial by Driscoll, Saint Anselm settled down into an offensive set. That eventually resulted in the third goal of the night by Hill, which gave the Hawks an 11-9 lead with under 12 minutes to play.
- Carita answered for Pace with a pair of player-up scores just 40 seconds apart that tied the game at 11-11. Each goalie then came up with a timely save as the game remained deadlocked with under eight minutes to go.
- During the next six minutes of action, the Setters erupted on offense with six straight goals, four of which while up a player, to blow the game wide open. Laura Luikart scored three goals and Genovese added a pair in that span as Pace jumped out to a 17-11 lead with 2:24 left.
- The Hawks were unable to bounce back from that and ultimately fell by the same scoreline.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
- Pace held a sizeable 38-21 advantage in total shots in addition to a 23-13 lead in shots on goal.
- The Setters dominated the center circle with a 21-11 edge in draw controls. Sasha Kulo led Pace with a game-high 14 draw controls, while Rivet led Saint Anselm with five.
- The battle for ground balls was much closer with Pace holding a slight 11-8 lead. Driscoll posted a game-high and season-high five ground balls for Saint Anselm.
- Both teams took fairly good care of the ball. The Hawks committed 12 turnovers in the contest, while the Setters had 11 giveaways.
- Defensively, the Hawks caused eight of those turnovers, while the Setters forced seven turnovers. Junior Julia Marsden (Norfolk, Mass.) produced two caused turnovers to lead the Hawks.
- The two sides were nearly perfect on clear attempts as Saint Anselm went 19-21 (90.5%) and Pace went 16-18 (88.9%).
- Saint Anselm and Pace were each efficient on free-position shots as well. The Hawks went 3-3 (100.0%), while the Setters went 4-8 (50.0%).
- The game was extremely physical and saw 17 total penalties. Saint Anselm was called for 12 penalties and Pace was whistled for five. There were 11 green cards and six yellow cards issued.
- As a result, the Setters scored eight player-up goals in the contest. The Hawks countered with two player-up goals and two player-down goals.
- Hill led Saint Anselm with a team-high five points on three goals and two assists. It was her fifth hat trick of the season as well as her fifth straight game with multiple assists. Hill now leads the team this spring with 32 assists (tied for fourth in the NE10) and 58 points (eighth in the NE10).
- Christmas, McDermod, and Rivet all scored two goals for the Hawks. McDermod now has 41 goals this season, which leads the team and ranks ninth in the NE10. Christmas increased her total to 36 goals on the year, which is second-most on the squad and 11th-most in the conference.
- Six of Pace's seven goalscorers scored multiple goals. The Setters were led by Luikart (four goals), Genovese (three goals, two assists), Carita (three goals, one assist), Mottes (two goals, four assists), Schubert (two goals, one assist), and O'Connor (two goals).
- Driscoll made 14 saves in the cage and posted a .452 save percentage for the Hawks in the loss. She is 11 saves away from reaching 500 for her career.
- Tanguay made four saves and allowed eight goals in 52:44 for the Setters in the win. Elsa Branco played the final 7:16 of the first half in goal for the Setters and made one stop while allowing three goals.
- This marked the 10th all-time meeting between these two programs. Saint Anselm falls to 1-9 overall against Pace in the series that began in 2015.
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