BOSTON, Mass. – The Simmons College women's lacrosse team erased a late four-goal deficit and senior Kasey Fries (Bridgewater, Mass.) became the school's career leader in points in a 15-14 overtime victory over visiting Norwich University in Great Northeast Athletic Conference action tonight at Daly Field in Brighton, Mass. The Sharks improve to 7-5 overall and 3-4 in league play, while the Cadets fall to 5-5 and 3-3.
Norwich enjoyed a 30-24 shot advantage, including 15-8 in the second half and won 20 of 31 draws, but Simmons capitalized on nine free-position shooting opportunities, converting for six goals.
Sophomore midfielder Kingsley Richards (Lexington, Mass.) scored just 66 seconds into overtime to give the Sharks the win and cap their comeback.
Fries scored five times, including her first score of the night at the 21:10 mark of the first half to give her 196 lifetime points to move past Stephanie Olivera (2012-15) and become Simmons' career leader. She now has 200 career points for the Sharks. Fries added a ground ball and a caused turnover. Junior midfielder Mallory Cottam (Hope, R.I.) also found the back of the net five times for Simmons in addition to four draw controls and two ground balls, while Richards finished with a pair of goals and a draw control. Junior midfielder Ana Giarrusso (Hingham, Mass.) scored a pair of goals, won two draws and registered a game-high five ground balls and three caused turnovers. First year goalie Cat Cross (Beverly, Mass.) made 10 saves to earn the victory.
Junior midfielder Kathryn Albretsen (Cotuit, Mass.) led the Cadets with five goals, two ground balls, four draw controls and a pair of caused turnovers, while sophomore attacker Olivia Bloom (Annapolis, Md.) netted four goals. Senior attacker Meaghan McGrath (Barre, Vt.) scored three goals to go with a ground ball and sophomore attacker Mary-Kait Mace (Canton, N.Y.) won a match-high nine draw controls, picked up two ground balls and caused a turnover. Sophomore goalie Lawson Hayes (Moorestown, N.J.) made five saves for the visitors.
Bloom scored with 20:05 left to play in the second half to cap a string of five unanswered goals for Norwich to give the visitors their largest lead of the night at 12-8.
The Sharks scored the next three goals, including markers from Giarrusso and Cottam within 45 seconds of each other, to cut the deficit to 12-11 with 7:42 showing in the second period. The Cadets answered with a pair of goals with first year attacker Emily Schromm (North Attleboro, Mass.) and McGrath each scoring to give Norwich a 14-11 margin with 5:45 remaining in the half. They would be the last two scores of the night for the Cadets. Fries scored her 41st goal of the season just 37 seconds later for Simmons, before Cottam scored with 2:55 showing on the second half clock to pull the Sharks to within 14-13. Norwich turned the ball over with 1:11 to go in the second period and Cottam later scored the equalizer for Simmons with 36 ticks left on the clock to eventually send the game to overtime.
The Cadets won the opening draw of the overtime period, but Giarrusso caused a turnover for the Sharks just 25 seconds into the extra period to give the home team the ball for good before Richards' winning tally.
The teams were tied at 3-3 early in the opening half, but Simmons scored four of the next five goals, including two from Fries, to take a 7-4 lead with 13:07 to go in the half. Norwich rallied to score three straight goals, including a pair from junior midfielder Kathryn Albretsen (Cotuit, Mass.), to pull even at 7-7. Sophomore midfielder Amina Mansouri (Revere, Mass.) reclaimed the lead for the Sharks with her sixth goal of the year coming at 4:09 on a free position shot. Norwich matched the goal when Albretsen also scored on a free position opportunity with 1:31 left in the first period to send the game into halftime with an 8-8 tie.
Simmons returns to action on Thursday, April 12 when it heads to Milton, Mass. to take on Curry College at 4:00 p.m., while the Cadets host Lasell College on April 14 at 4:00 p.m.