Bentley Set to Face Saint Anselm in Northeast-10 First Round
WALTHAM, Mass. – Sixth-seeded Bentley University will take on third-seeded Saint Anselm on Wednesday at 4:00 pm in the first round of the 2014 Northeast-10 Women's Lacrosse Championships.
The Falcons are making the third straight appearance in the NE-10 Championships and 13th since the 2000 season. They enter the postseason with an 8-8 overall record and 7-5 in the NE-10 regular season. They Hawks went 12-3 overall, 9-3 in the NE-10 and are currently ranked No. 12 by the IWLCA.
The two programs have never met in the postseason before, but have played 17 times prior. Saint Anselm won this year's regular season meeting, 12-9 in Manchester, N.H., on March 19. In that game, the Hawks used a 4-0 second half run to turn a 7-4 lead into 11-4, and held off a late Bentley rally that saw them score the final four goals of the game.
The Falcons got off to a slow start this season, posting just a 2-6 record in their first eight games after a last second, 9-8 loss to New Haven at home on March 29. But since that game, Bentley reversed its record and has gone 6-2. Included in that run was a four-game winning streak where they outscored the opponents 54-28.
Bentley's attack has been led by the trio of Taylor Bastien (North Kingstown, R.I./North Kingstown), Jackie Brown (Brookfield, Conn./Brookfield) and Carolyn Kynoch (Ashland, Mass./Ashland). Brown and Kynoch share the team lead in goals with 32, while Bastien has been the distributor with 39 assists, which is third in the NE-10.
As a team, the Falcons average the seventh most goals in the conference (10.88) and allow the seventh fewest (10.43).
Saint Anselm counters with the second highest scoring offense in the conference (15.00) and fourth stingiest defense (8.33). The offense is led by the high-scoring duo of junior Marissa Daly (59 goals) and sophomore Caitlin Villareal (45). The pair are fourth and fifth in NE-10 in points with 73 and 61, respectively.
The winner of Wednesday's game advances to the semifinals on Saturday to play second-seeded New Haven. Top-seed and host of the semifinals and finals, Adelphi, will play the winner of the other first round game Wednesday between fourth-seeded Stonehill and fifth-seeded Le Moyne.
The championship game is set to take place Sunday at 3:00 pm.