MANCHESTER, N.H. – Southern New Hampshire won a battle between two teams fighting for a Northeast-10 playoff berth, 18-13 over Bentley in women's lacrosse action Monday night. Junior Emily Mongeau and freshman Phoebe Clark each had five goals for Southern, while sophomore Cori Geiger (Agawam, Mass./Agawam) had four goals and three assists for the Falcons.

Southern New Hampshire got the better of a high-scoring first half 13-6. Bentley led 4-2 after eight-plus minutes after a goal by junior Megan Wiggins (Acton, Mass./Acton-Boxborough), but the Penmen surged ahead with a massive 11-0 run that spanned more than 13 minutes. Clark had three goals during the run and Mongeau had two.

Bentley scored two in a row from freshman Chelsea Larivee (Amherst, N.H./Souhegan) and junior Alex Carney (Providence, R.I./The Wheeler School) to make the score 11-6, before freshman Ellie Morin and Mongeau found the back of the net towards the end of the half.

Geiger scored three goals to help Bentley chip away at the deficit in the second half, getting it down to 15-10 at the 14:36 mark, but Mongeau and Clark added to their totals to make it 17-10.

The Falcons again got the deficit down to five goals with 8:12 remaining after Wiggins and Carney scored, but they only scored once more before time expired.

The Penmen improve to 5-3 in the NE-10 and gain the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Falcons, who drop to 5-4 in conference play. They're back in action on Saturday afternoon at No. 1 Adelphi.

Box Score

Bentley (7-7, 5-4 NE-10)                           6    7   --   13

So. New Hampshire (7-5, 5-3 NE-10)        13  5   --   18

Scoring: S, Emily Mongeau 5, Phoebe Clark 5, Ellie Morin 3, Justine Clark 3, Jade Antonageli 1, Sara Halbich 1; B, Cori Geiger 4, Chelsea Larivee 3, Megan Wiggins 3, Alex Carney 3

Assists: S, Antonageli 3, Kelly Curran 1, Mongeau 1, Morin 1; B, Geiger 3, Larivee 1

Shots: S, 35; B, 32

Saves: S, Hannah Moriarty 14; B, Ally Dorman 10

Ground Balls: S, 24; B, 18

Draw Controls: S, 19; B, 13