Kathleen Gillespie
Kathleen Gillespie

Women’s Lacrosse Set to Battle Pace in Northeast-10 Quarterfinals

WALTHAM, Mass. – The Bentley women's lacrosse team will travel down to New York on Wednesday to take on the Pace Setters in the quarterfinals of the Northeast-10 Women's Lacrosse Championship. The game gets underway at 6:00 pm.

Fans can tune into the game at the following link: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/pace/

The Falcons went 9-6 overall in the regular season and 8-5 NE10. That earned them the No. 6 seed in the playoffs, and the team is also ranked 20th in this week's IWLCA poll. The Setters, meanwhile, went 13-4 in the regular season and 10-3 NE10 to claim the No. 3 seed, and a ranking of 15th by the IWLCA.

One of the Bentley's wins this season came over Pace, 14-13 in Waltham back on April 14. In that game, sophomore goalie Eliza Bresler (Newton, Mass./Newton North) made 18 saves, just one off her season high.

The Falcons trailed 13-12 down the stretch after a 4-0 run by the Setters put them in front. However, senior Kathleen Gillespie (Topsfield, Mass./Masconomet) scored the tying goal at the 3:12 mark, and freshman Julia Glavin (Ipswich, Mass./Ipswich) scored the winning goal at 2:18.  Bresler then came up huge to preserve the lead, as she made saves on two free-position shots in the final minute to seal the win for Bentley.

Freshman Cara McCarthy (Salem, N.H./Central Catholic) had six goals in that game, while defensemen Emily De Marinis (Smithtown, N.Y./Smithtown East) and Kate Schmal (Saint James, N.Y./Smithtown East) each had two caused turnovers.

The Falcons have been a stable of the NE10 playoffs. They have been in the tournament in all but two years of the program's existence, which began in 1999. Wednesday's game however will be the first postseason meeting against Pace.

Bentley will be looking to advance to the NE10 semifinals for the second time in three seasons after they advanced that far in 2016 after a 9-8 victory over Stonehill in the quarterfinals.

Pace is in the NE10 playoffs for the third straight year, and will be looking to make its first foray into the semis.

The winner of Wednesday's game will meet the winner of (No. 2) Le Moyne and (No. 7) Saint Anselm on Saturday in the semifinals. The other quarterfinal games on Wednesday are (No. 1 Adelphi) vs. (No. 8) Assumption and (No. 4) Merrimack vs. (No. 5) New Haven.

The two semifinal games, and the finals on Sunday, will be all be hosted by the school that is the highest remaining seed after Wednesday's games.