BOSTON, Mass. - Senior attacker Stephanie Oliveri (Waltham, Mass.) registered her 200th career point, but the Simmons College women's lacrosse team was unable to overtake visiting Saint Joseph's College (Maine), falling in overtime, 17-15, this afternoon in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference contest on Winsor Field in Boston, Mass. The Sharks fall to 6-8 overall and 4-5 in league play, while the Monks win their 14th straight game to improve to 14-1 and a perfect 9-0.
Saint Joseph's will be the top seed in the GNAC Championship Tournament and host number eight seed Rivier University on Wednesday, April 21, while Simmons is seeded sixth and will travel to Providence, R.I. on the same day to take on number three seed Johnson & Wales University at 7:00 p.m.
Junior midfielder Greer Gilbert (Falmouth, Mass.) scored the final two goals of regulation for the Sharks with 1:46 and 59 seconds, respectively, to tie the match at 14-14 and send the contest to overtime.
Sophomore midfielder Jackie Wilson (Tiverton, R.I.) gave the Monks a 15-14 edge just 43 seconds into overtime, before sophomore middie Sara Rademacher (North Haven, Conn.) tied the score again for Simmons with her only marker of the afternoon coming at the 4:36 mark of the extra period. Saint Joseph's netted the final two goals of the match with junior midfielder Kat Gadbois (Scarborough, Maine) finding the back of the net at the 2:28 mark and sophomore attacker Kelsey Dumond (Lewiston, Maine) scoring with 46 ticks left on the clock to give the visitors a 17-15 lead that held up for the victory.
The Sharks led for almost the entire first half with Oliveri cracking the scoring column at 27:03 of the opening half and then finding junior midfielder Ashley Sheehan (North Attleboro, Mass.) for a goal at 24:24 for a 2-0 lead. Junior attacker Elizabeth Elcock (Westwood, Mass.) scored the first of a team-high five goals with 19:58 to play in the half to cut the deficit in half for Saint Joseph's. Simmons netted four of the next five goals over the next seven-plus minutes to take a 6-2 margin with 12:29 showing on the first half clock. Sheehan scored twice, while Gilbert and first year midfielder Kasey Fries (Bridgewater, Mass.) also registered goals for the Sharks. Wilson tallied a goal for the Monks during the stretch.
Saint Joseph's chipped away at Simmons' four-goal cushion, scoring four unanswered markers in a span of just under six minutes to knot the game at 6-6. Elcock netted a pair of scores, while Dumond also scored before first year attacker Elyse Caiazzo (Scarborough, Maine) netted the equalizer with 2:46 left in the period. Gilbert netted the final goal of the half to give the Sharks a 7-6 edge.
Simmons began the second half with the same offensive fire as the first period as Sheehan sandwiched a pair of goals, to give her five for the day, around a score from Gilbert to increase the Sharks' lead to 10-6 with 26:59 remaining in regulation. The teams traded the next four goals, including a pair from Simmons junior attacker Alexa Faria (Cumberland, R.I.) and single scores from Dumond and senior middie Lizzie Calnan (Westport, Mass.) to keep it a four-goal margin at 12-8 with 24:10 to go in the period.
The Monks' offense exploded for six straight markers over the next 14 minutes, including two from Elcock and Caiazzo. The second tally from Caiazzo came with a player advantage and gave the visitors' their first lead of the day at 13-12 on a free position shot, before Gadbois padded the lead to 14-12 with 10:07 remaining in the half.
Caiazzo added five assists to her three goals for an eight-point effort for Saint Joseph's to lead all players and added four draw controls, a pair of ground balls and a caused turnover. Leasure was also a facilitator for the Monks with four assists in addition to a goal, three ground balls, a pair of caused turnovers and a draw control. Elcock chipped in with a ground ball, caused turnover and won a draw to go with her goals, while Gadbois finished with a pair of goals, six draw controls, four ground balls and three caused turnovers.
Gilbert and Sheehan each netted five goals to lead the Sharks. Gilbert also racked up a game-high nine draw controls to go with a ground ball, while Sheehan won five draws, picked up a pair of ground balls and caused two turnovers. Oliveri ended the day with six points, including the 200th of her career on an assist at the 26:59 of the second half. She now has 201 career points.
Junior goalie Michelle Cunha (Enfield, Conn.) made eight saves to earn the victory for Saint Joseph's, while senior goalie Crystal Derosier (Kingston, Mass.) stopped 13 shots for Simmons.