Lacrosse Falls at Holy Cross
The Blue Devils' program record eight-game winning streak comes to an end with the loss.
The Central Connecticut women's lacrosse team fell to Holy Cross by a score of 11-6 in a non-conference game on Wednesday night. The Blue Devils fall to 9-6 overall on the season with the loss, while the Crusaders improve to 7-9. The loss snaps CCSU's school record winning streak at eight games.
The Blue Devils will return to action and put their perfect Northeast Conference record on the line on Friday afternoon against Mount St. Mary's at Arute Field.
CCSU out-scored the Crusaders 5-4 in the second half, but it was not enough to overcome Holy Cross' 7-1 halftime advantage.
The Crusaders scored the first two goals of the second half, but the Blue Devils posted back-to-back goals at the 20:39 and 17:31 marks in the period to cut the lead to 9-3. Junior Amanda Toke scored with an assist from freshman Falynn McCartney and then freshman Elyse Malecki found the net with the help of freshman Madison Hughes.
A Holy Cross goal interrupted CCSU's run, but the Blue Devils answered with a goal by senior Betsy Vendel. McCartney recorded her second assist of the game on the Vendel goal, which cut Holy Cross' lead to 10-4.
The Crusaders followed with another goal, but CCSU continued to compete. Malecki scored her second goal of the game with 3:35 left to play and Hughes found the net for her first of the game just 70 seconds later.
Hughes' goal was the final score of the game and set the final at 11-6. The Blue Devils closed the game on a 5-2 run.
The Blue Devils were trailing 6-0 before McCartney scored CCSU's first goal of the game with 3:09 left in the first period.
Holy Cross held sizable advantages in shots, ground balls and draw controls in the first period.
The Blue Devils held a 6-4 advantage in draw controls during the second half and limited the Crusaders in transition. CCSU held Holy Cross to just six successful clears on 10 attempts in the second period.
McCartney, Hughes and Malecki had strong games for the Blue Devils. McCartney posted a team-high three points with one goal and two assists. Malecki had a pair of goals and Hughes had a goal and an assist.
Vendel led the team with three ground balls and had two draw controls. The two draw controls shared a team-high with McCartney and senior Mackenzy Ryan. Vendel also caused a turnover.
Holy Cross was led by five players who scored a pair of goals.
The Blue Devils host Mount St. Mary's on Friday and Monmouth on Sunday at Arute Field. It is the final weekend of the NEC women's lacrosse regular season and the winner of Sunday's game will claim the top-seed and the right to host the NEC Tournament.