Lacrosse Tops Manhattan, 17-6
The Central Connecticut lacrosse team scored a season-high 17 goals.
The Central Connecticut women's lacrosse team earned a 17-6 victory over Manhattan College on Tuesday afternoon at Arute Field. The Blue Devils (4-5, 2-0 NEC) jumped out to a 9-1 lead in the first half and did not allow the Jaspers (3-6) back into the game. Senior Betsy Vendel finished with a season-high seven points to lead the CCSU squad.
The Blue Devils opened the game with four goals over the first eight minutes and four seconds of play. Vendel started the run with an assist from senior Mackenzy Ryan. Junior Claire Healy scored the next goal with an assist from Vendel. Less than a minute after Healy's goal, freshman Elyse Malceki scored with an assist from Ryan and junior Amanda Toke capped the run with an unassisted goal.
Manhattan's Kelsey Rehain scored to briefly halt CCSU's momentum, but the Blue Devils followed her goal with a 5-0 run to close the period.
Vendel passed to Ryan for CCSU's fifth goal of the game and then sophomore Jessica Sudock and Vendel posted back-to-back unassisted goals to give the Blue Devils a 7-1 lead. Ryan followed with her second goal of the game with an assist from Malecki and Vendel passed to Healy for the final goal of the first period.
The Blue Devils finished the first period with a 9-1 lead and out-shot the Jaspers 20-3 in the period. CCSU controlled the ball for the majority of the first half and forced Manhattan to turn the ball over 14 times in the period.
In the second half, the Blue Devils opened the scoring with an unassisted goal by freshman Falynn McCartney two and a half minutes into the period.
Following a goal by Manhattan, sophomore Andrea Tarsi scored with the help of freshman Madison Hughes to give CCSU a 11-2 lead.
After another Manhattan goal, CCSU opened its best scoring run of the second half with three straight goals. Vendel netted her third goal of the game with an assist from Toke. Malecki followed with a free position goal and Hughes closed the scoring stretch with and unassisted goal.
Manhattan's Donna Jo DiNorcia scored to interrupt CCSU's run, but Vendel passed to Ryan with 8:15 left to play to put CCSU ahead 15-4. The goal was the third of the game for Ryan.
The Jaspers scored two goals over the ensuing four minutes to make it a 15-6 game, but again the Blue Devils had an answer.
Toke scored the final two goals of the game for Central. Her first was an unassisted score with 3:20 left to play and her second came with an assist from Claire Healy with 1:30 left in the game.
The Blue Devil defense played well throughout the game. CCSU was anchored by sophomore goalkeeper Morgan Tullar who earned her fourth victory of the season. Tullar made four saves and also picked up four ground balls.
Senior Ali Roche, senior Cierra Ward, Vendel, Toke and Hughes all recorded three ground balls in the game. The Blue Devils had 26 ground balls as a team.
Roche also had a team-high three caused turnovers in the game.
Vendel led the Blue Devils with seven points, three goals and four assists. Toke and Ryan joined Vendel with hat-tricks on the day. Vendel also led the team with four draw controls and right behind her were Toke and Ryan who each recorded three.
The 17 goals are a season-high for the Blue Devils.
CCSU returns to action on Thursday afternoon against NEC foe Sacred Heart. The game is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. on Arute Field.