MANCHESTER, N.H. – Senior
Abigail Christmas (Elmira, N.Y.) set new career-highs with six goals and seven points, leading the Saint Anselm College women's lacrosse team to a dominant 17-6 win over Southern New Hampshire on Wednesday night in Northeast-10 Conference (NE10) action. Sophomore
Alyssa Hill (Brookline, N.H.) also had a strong performance with a career-best six assists for the Hawks, who snapped a three-game losing streak and improved to 9-4 overall with the win.
UP NEXT:
- Saint Anselm is back at Grappone Stadium for their final home game of the regular season, which is also Senior Night, against Franklin Pierce on Friday, April 11th at 5:00 p.m.
Score: Saint Anselm 17, Southern New Hampshire 6
Records: Saint Anselm (9-4, 4-3 NE10), Southern New Hampshire (5-7, 1-5 NE10)
Location: Manchester, N.H. (Grappone Stadium)
Date: Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Attendance: 105
HOW IT HAPPENED:
- Saint Anselm was given a player-up opportunity less than a minute into the game after Southern New Hampshire was issued a green card. Freshman Ayla McDermod (Hanover, Mass.) capitalized with the opening goal to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead.
- Katelyn Hadden answered for the Penmen shortly after with a free-position goal to tie it up at 1-1.
- Just 29 seconds later, McDermod drove to the cage and struck again, scoring her second goal as Saint Anselm regained the lead.
- Late in the first quarter, Christmas found the back of the net for the Hawks twice on a pair of player-up scores just 18 seconds apart that gave her team a 4-1 lead heading into the second. Hill picked up an assist on both of those goals.
- A little over a minute into the second quarter, McDermod set up Christmas for her third goal of the night as Saint Anselm increased their lead to 5-1.
- Skylar Pietz responded for Southern New Hampshire, scoring consecutive unassisted goals to cut the deficit to 5-3.
- The Hawks generated three more goals after that with McDermod, senior Samantha Rivet (Sudbury, Mass.), and sophomore Lucy Mawn (Harwich, Mass.) all finishing free-position chances. That gave Saint Anselm an 8-3 lead at halftime.
- Natalie Bosselman opened the scoring 16 seconds into the second half with a player-up goal for the Penmen, trimming the margin down to four.
- The Hawks' offense exploded after that, scoring seven of the game's next eight goals in the third quarter to blow the game open. Hill set up Mawn and Christmas on back-to-back tallies before senior Kendra Sabotka (Rutland, Vt.) got in on the scoring and made it 11-4.
- Rachel McLaughlin temporarily interrupted the Hawks' scoring run. She scored for Southern New Hampshire with nine minutes left in the third, but Saint Anselm rattled off four more goals in the final six minutes of the period to take a double-digit lead.
- Sabtoka scored twice for the Hawks during that span, including a player-up goal, while McDermod and senior Jaycie Balboni (Billerica, Mass.) also scored to make it 15-5.
- Christmas continued to pour it on in the final quarter of play, scoring two more goals to put her total at six for the game. That increased the Saint Anselm lead to a dozen.
- Bosselman found the back of the net one final time with under a minute remaining for the Penmen, but the Hawks cruised to the dominant victory by a final score of 17-6.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
- Southern New Hampshire held a slight 27-26 advantage in total shots, but Saint Anselm maintained a 22-19 edge in shots on goal.
- The battle in the center circle was fairly even with the Hawks leading in draw controls, 13-11. Mawn led the Hawks with a game-high seven draw controls and has a team-high 61 this season, which is third-most in the NE10.
- The Penmen held a sizeable lead in ground balls, 21-13. Senior goaltender Elizabeth Driscoll (Marblehead, Mass.) scooped up a game-high four ground balls to lead the Hawks.
- Saint Anselm committed 19 turnovers in the game, while Southern New Hampshire had 18 giveaways.
- The Hawks defense caused nine of those turnovers, while the Penmen defense forced seven turnovers. Christmas posted a career-high four caused turnovers for the Hawks.
- On clear attempts, Saint Anselm went 17-20 (85.0%) and Southern New Hampshire went 15-24 (62.5%).
- The Hawks went 5-7 (71.4%) on free-position shots, while the Penmen went 1-4 (25.0%).
- The game featured 12 penalties with the two teams being called for six apiece. There were eight green cards and four yellow cards issued. As a result, the Hawks scored six player-up goals in the contest, while the Penmen finished with one.
- Christmas led Saint Anselm with career-highs of six goals and seven points. It was her ninth multi-goal game of the season. She is second on the team and 10th in the NE10 with 30 goals this spring.
- Hill did not score in the game, but set a career-high with six assists for the Hawks. The sophomore leads the team and is third in the conference with 23 assists this year. She also leads the team and is tied for 10th in the NE10 with 43 points.
- McDermod produced four goals for her 10th multi-goal game of the season for Saint Anselm, and Sabtoka finished with a three-goal night.
- Bosselman and Pietz scored two goals each to lead Southern New Hampshire.
- Driscoll made 13 saves and posted a .684 save percentage for the Hawks in the win.
- Corrina Moulton made four saves and allowed 12 goals in 38:50 of action for the Penmen. She was replaced by Nicole Mirra, who played the final 21:10 in the cage and made one save while allowing five goals.
- This marked the 22nd all-time meeting between these two programs. Saint Anselm improves to 14-8 overall against Southern New Hampshire in the series that began in 2004. The Hawks have now won six straight games against the Penmen and have not lost since 2019.
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