AUBURNDALE, Mass. -- Senior attacker Kasey Fries (Bridgewater, Mass.) scored a pair of goals to tie the Simmons College women's lacrosse record for career points in a 21-6 loss to host Lasell College this afternoon in Great Northeast Athletic Conference action at Grellier Field in Auburndale, Mass. The Sharks fall to 6-5 overall and 2-4 in league play, while the Lasers win their third straight to improve to 8-3 and 4-2.
Fries matches Stephanie Oliveri's (2012-15) lifetime mark of 195 points at Simmons. She also added a draw control to her day. Sophomore midfielder Kingsley Richards (Lexington, Mass.) also netted a pair of goals for the Sharks to go with a draw control and junior midfielder Mallory Cottam (Hope, R.I.) and first year midfielder Molly Reinhold (Mystic, Conn.) each scored a goal. Cottam won four draws and Reinhold caused a turnover and picked up two ground balls. Junior Ana Giarrusso (Hingham, Mass.) registered three caused turnovers. First year goalie Cat Cross (Beverly, Mass.) stopped nine shots.
Lasell had a 37-14 advantage in shots and won 23 of 29 draws. Junior Vanessa Pino (Methuen, Mass.) led the way with 10 points for the Lasers, scoring three goals and tallying a school-record seven assists, breaking the previous mark of five assists in a game set by Tina Canavan in 2011. Senior Taylor Yandow (Moretown, Vt.) scored a career-high eight goals, added an assist and collected a season-high 10 draw controls and first year Kelly Matthews (Walpole, Mass.) contributed season-highs of six goals and seven draw controls along with one assist. Laser sophomore Morgan Choquet (Woonsocket, R.I.) made three saves to earn the victory in goal.
Yandow scored twice in the first minute and 13 seconds to stake Lasell to an early lead. After junior Mallory Cottam (Hope, R.I.) put Simmons on the board, Lasell rattled off six goals in a row to take an 8-1 lead at the midway point of the first half. Yandow and Matthews had two goals in that stretch and Pino was good for a goal and two assists.
The teams traded two goals each over the next five minutes before Lasell closed out the half with four unanswered markers to hold a 14-3 lead at the intermission. Reinhold and Richards had the Simmons goals, while Yandow and Matthews again scored twice each for the home team to wind up the half.
Lasell scored the first seven goals of the second half to put the game out of reach. Pino had a goal and three assists after the break while Yandow, junior Jordan McComb (Cumberland, R.I.) and Matthews all scored twice each. Simmons tacked on three goals in the final eight minutes of the game, one by Richards and two by Fries.
Simmons returns home to host Norwich University on Tuesday, April 10 at 6:00 p.m. at Daly Field in a GNAC affair. The Lasers are home again on the same day hosting Albertus Magnus College in a GNAC contest at 4:00 p.m.
