BOSTON, Mass. -- Senior attacker Kasey Fries (Bridgewater, Mass.) scored three goals to lead the Simmons College women's lacrosse team in an 11-7 loss to visiting Regis (Mass.) this afternoon in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference match at Daly Field in Brighton, Mass. The Sharks fall to 8-7 overall and 4-5 in league play, while the Pride win their seventh straight to improve to 12-3 and 7-2.
Simmons owned a 29-23 shot advantage for the match, but also turned the ball over 23 times to Regis' total of 19. The Sharks won 13 of the 20 draws, but the Pride owned a 21-15 margin in ground balls. Despite 13 free position shot opportunities, Simmons was able to convert on just one of them.
Fries added a caused turnover to her day for the Sharks, while first year midfielder Molly Reinhold (Mystic, Conn.) netted a pair of goals, won three draws, picked up three ground balls and caused a turnover. Sophomore midfielder Kingsley Richards (Lexington, Mass.) registered two points, including a goal. First year goalie Cat Cross (Beverly, Mass.) stopped 10 shots for Simmons.
Sophomore attacker Kerri Anselmo (Natick, Mass.) netted four goals and sophomore midfielder Brooke Ross (Hanover, Mass.) tallied five points to lead the Regis. Anselmo added a ground ball and a caused turnover, while Ross won three draws and caused a turnover in addition to her three goals and two assists. Sophomore attacker Bridget Dowling (Hanover, Mass.) contributed with two goals and a ground ball for the Pride. Senior midfielder Linsay Bumila (Raynham, Mass.) came up with four ground balls, three caused turnovers and scored a goal. Senior goalie Maresa Malcolm (Barrington, N.J.) was outstanding in net for Regis with 12 saves to earn the victory.
The Regis offense scored the first five goals of the day, while the defense kept the Sharks off the board for nearly 20 minutes. Anselmo scored two of the Pride's first five goals, while Bumila's goal gave the visitors a 5-0 lead with 12:48 to play in the opening half.
Reinhold cracked the scoring column for Simmons with the first of two consecutive goals coming with 10:22 left in the half. Her second score came just over two minutes later to cut the deficit to 5-2. Ross and Anselmo later scored 34 seconds apart to increase the Regis' lead to 7-2, before Fries scored for the Sharks on a feed from Richards with 4:36 remaining in the period to make it 7-3 before the intermission.
The Pride scored three unanswered goals to open the second stanza and held Simmons scoreless for almost 18 minutes. Junior attacker Emily Kosak (Milton, Mass.) netted the first goal of the second half with 19:09 showing on the clock, before Dowling and Anselmo followed with scores of their own to give Regis its largest lead of the day at 10-3 with 12:41 to play in the match. Fries scored Simmons first goal of the half just 22 seconds later and Richards found the back of the net 76 seconds after that as part of a three-goal string capped by Fries' 53rd marker of the year to pull the Sharks to within 10-6 with 7:31 remaining in the contest.
Ross scored the Pride's final goal of the afternoon with 3:32 showing, before junior midfielder Mallory Cottam (Hope, R.I.) scored at 1:43 for Simmons to set the final at 11-7.
The Sharks return to action on Tuesday, April 24 when they head down the street for their regular-season finale to take on cross-street and GNAC rival Emmanuel College for a 7:00 p.m. draw at Roberto Clemente Field, while Regis hosts Mount Ida College on the same night at 7:00 p.m.