WEST HAVEN, Conn. – The University of New Haven women's lacrosse team extended their win streak to eight games, defeating the Saint Anselm Hawks, 20-16 on Saturday afternoon. Prior to the start of the game, New Haven honored its two seniors Courtney Duffy (Merrimack, N.H./Merrimack) and Jessica Mazliah (Holbrook, N.Y./Sachem North) for their contributions to the team the past four years. Mackenzie Reh (Medford, N.Y./Patchogue Medford) led the offense, tying her career-high, with seven goals in the game.
Mazliah led the team with eight points on four goals and four assists, including moving herself into second place all-time at New Haven with 119 career assists. Freshman Emily Holland (Londonderry, N.H./Londonderry) notched three goals and sophomore Julia Jette (Franklin, Mass./Franklin) contributed with two goals on the afternoon. Kendra Nolan (Oak Ridge, N.J. /Jefferson Township ), Caroline Maher (Mansfield, Mass./Mansfield) and Samantha Galler (Marshfield, Mass./Marshfield) each tallied one goal. Raven Linton (Lawrenceville, N.J./Notre Dame) rounded out the scoring, netting her fourth goal of the season to close out the game.
Sophomore goalkeeper Gianna Guerra (Thiells, N.Y./North Rockland) recorded her fifth win of the season between the pipes. Guerra had 13 saves on the day and played all 60 minutes of the game. Duffy led the defensive end with five caused turnovers and five ground balls. Reh and Linton each pulled down seven draw controls.
New Haven and Saint Anselm finished tied with 19 draw controls apiece, while the Hawks edged the Chargers, outshooting them 37-34. New Haven picked up 35 ground balls compared to Saint Anselm's 30, and New Haven was 7-9 on free position attempts.
The Chargers took a 3-0 lead early in the game, scoring those goals in the first five minutes with two coming from Mazliah and one from Holland. The Hawks answered that early 3-0 run with a pair of goals, However Nolan and Mazliah matched that with Mazliah securing a hat trick within the first 10 minutes of the game to give the Chargers a 5-3 advantage.
Saint Anselm responded with a 4-0 run to take a 7-5 lead with under 10 minutes to play in the first half. New Haven responded with Galler and Holland each scoring a goal to tie the game at seven. Saint Anselm answered to take a short one-goal lead before Reh recorded her first goal of the game off a pass from Mazliah with four and a half minutes left before the break. New Haven closed out the half with a one-goal advantage off a free position goal from Reh.
The Blue and Gold would extend their lead quickly to start the second half as Reh netted her third goal of the game and Jette recorded her first off a pass from Mazliah. The Chargers and Hawks went goal-for-goal over the next eight scores with Reh netting three in a row for New Haven followed by a goal from Holland.
New Haven then scored its largest lead of the day with Jette scoring on the pass from Mazliah, which was followed by a goal from Maher as New Haven took an 18-13 lead. The Chargers would hold on to secure their 12th victory of the season after Mazliah and Linton each recorded goals in the last five minutes of the contest.
The Chargers close out the regular season with an overall record of 12-5 and a 9-5 record in the Northeast-10, securing the fifth seed in the upcoming NE10 Championship. The Blue and Gold will travel to North Andover, Mass. on Wednesday, May 2 to take on No. 4 Merrimack in the first round.
