WEST HAVEN, Conn. – Behind nine points from senior attack Maya Szymanski (Framingham, Mass./Framingham), the University of New Haven women's lacrosse team scored a 20-12 victory over the visiting Southern New Hampshire Penmen in the final home regular season contest at Kayo Field. With the win, the Chargers improve to 12-4 overall and 10-2 in the Northeast-10 and secure a home game in the quarterfinals of the NE-10 Championship.
Szymanski's career-high nine points came on three goals and a career-best six assists as she led all scorers in the game. Senior Devon Previte (Toms River, N.J./Toms River North) added six points on a goal and five assists, while junior Nicole Balanger chipped in five goals. Three other Chargers finished with four points, while in total eight different players found the back of the net for New Haven.
As a team, the Chargers finished with a 32-24 advantage in total shots. Between the pipes, senior Alyssa Gianotti (Monkton, Md./Hereford) earned the victory for the Blue and Gold, her sixth of the season. Gianotti finished the game with eight stops, while Marissa McDermott (Longmeadow, Mass./Wilbraham & Monson Academy) also finished with one save, closing out the New Haven victory in goal.
After Southern New Hampshire opened the scoring just 47 seconds into the action, the Chargers would rally off four straight goals and six of the next seven to take their first and only lead of the afternoon. Szymanski would make her presence known early scoring the first two UNH goals and assisting on two more over that early 6-1 run.
Nicole Belanger (Kinnelon, N.J./Kinnelon) also put on a scoring clinic over the first six UNH goals, scoring three times in the opening 21 minutes. The Blue and Gold would add three more tallies before the intermission, taking a 9-6 advantage into the break.
Coming out of halftime, the Chargers would strike first with back-to-back goals from Szymanski and Caitlin O'Brien (Branford, Conn./Branford), with those two scores coming in the first two minutes. Just prior to seeing the first time minutes of the second half expire, the Chargers again rallied, this time scoring five straight and seven of the next eight goals to take a 19-9 advantage with just shy of five minutes remaining. In that span, five different players found the back of the net with Belanger and Alicia Busco (Agawam, Mass./Agawam) each scoring twice in the rally.
The final Charger goal would come with 15 seconds remaining in the contest when freshman Mackenzie Reh (Medford, N.Y./Patchogue Medford) netted her second tally of the season off a free position attempt.
New Haven will conclude the regular season on the road on Saturday afternoon when they travel to Waltham, Mass. for a date with the Bentley Falcons. Opening draw in the regular season finale is slated for 12:00 p.m. The Chargers will then await their opponent for the quarterfinals of the NE-10 Championship with that opening round contest scheduled for Wednesday, May 4 with a start time to be determined.
