Owls Hold Off John Carroll, 13-11

WESTFIELD, Mass.  –   Westfield State had four players each scored three goals, as the Owls held off John Carroll (Ohio) University, 13-11 in a non-conference women's lacrosse game at Clearwater, Fla., to complete the Owls two-game spring break trip in Tuesday morning.

Westfield State improves to 3-1 on the season, while JCU is now 0-3.

Emma Cretella, Cassidy Harvey, Nicole Rinkus and Natalie Demaio each found the back of the net three times in the win.

Westfield led  the 3-2 at the end of the first quarter and 7-6 at the half.

The Owls scored three of the first four goals of the second half with tallies from Cretella, Rinkus and Demaio to go ahead by a 10-7 count, but John Carroll netted the last two goals of the third period to trim the lead back to 10-9 at the intermission.

In the fourth quarter, the Blue Streaks again trimmed the lead back to one goal at 12-11 when Caylin Perryman scored off of an assist from Jenna Ginsburg, but the Owls answered less than a minute later with an unassisted goal from Demaio to boost the lead back to 13-11with 6:01 left in the game.

Westfield controlled possession late in the game to preserve the win.   Sydney Smith made nine saves in goal for Westfield, while John Carroll alternated goalies Ava Welchans and Maddie Munding, who combined to stop 10 shots.

The start of the game was delayed about one hour due to a scoreboard malfunction.

Westfield returns to the north, to next face #18-ranked Bowdoin College in a non-conference game at Alumni Field on Sunday, March 20 at 12:00 noon.