Women’s Lacrosse Hits Tough Conference Skid

Women’s Lacrosse Hits Tough Conference Skid

Weston Atwood

for The Clock 

wja2000@plymouth.edu

At 8-4 the Plymouth State women’s lacrosse team is second in the Little East Standings. Led by leading scorers Megan Tingley (Natick, MA), Caroline Vonachen (Framingham, MA) and Sam Sullivan (Canton, MA) they have a great offensive attack. Tingley has 21 goals and 25 assists to lead the Panthers with a total of 46 points. Vonachen and Sullivan both have 34 goals and are tied for top goal scorers on the team. Stepping up big so far in her first season is freshman Kimmie Zuccaro (Townsend, Ma) who has eight goals, two assists and 27 ground balls. As a team the Panthers have some very good stats under first year coach Abby Burbank. They score 11-12 goals a game on average with a 77.7 shot percentage. They are 25-61 in free position opportunities and have caused 110 turnovers this season. One area where they have struggled has been the turnovers where they currently have 258 fourth worst in the LEC.

At Rhode Island College they picked up a huge 16-4 win. The Panthers got out to an early 5-0 lead off of goals from Zuccaro, and two each from Tingley and Sullivan. Rhode Island would get one before Tingley got two more and Emily Sauls (North Andover, MA) picked up her first goal of the season to take the 8-1 lead into halftime. Plymouth would get eight more goals in the second half including two from Merissa Milano (North Reading, MA) and the first of the season for Hailey Casey (Tyngsborough, MA).

Their next game would be the first game in a long time played at Arold Field, where the Bridgewater State Bears came into town. Sullivan and Zuccaro would give the Panthers an early two-goal lead, as they would lead by as much as six. Bridgewater brought it within one in the final minutes before Vonachen picked up a late insurance goal.

The very next day saw the Salem State Lady Vikings. Despite a quick goal by Tingley, Salem would get up to an early two goal lead. Plymouth would battle back thanks to goals from Sullivan and Vonachen to take an 8-5 lead into halftime. Plymouth led by as much as five before allowing four unanswered goals in the last 4:03 seconds to give Salem the 13-12 victory.

When rival Keene State came to town the competition was as fierce as the gale force winds that blew at Arold Field. Plymouth would get out to an early 5-0 lead thanks to two goals from Sullivan as well as one goal apiece from Tingley, Zuccaro and Sophia Guerriero (Essex, MA). They would take an 8-5 lead into halftime but then get outscored in the second half 9-1 not scoring any goals in the last 26 minutes to give Keene the 14-9 win.

Their next game is Saturday, April 23rd as they travel to Eastern Connecticut State. Their regular season home game is Tuesday, April 26th against Southern Maine.

CLOCK PHOTO/HANNAH ANDRY