SYRACUSE, N.Y. – A second half comeback bid by the New Haven women's lacrosse team came up short on Saturday afternoon as the sixth-seeded Chargers fell to seventh-seed Merrimack, 15-11 in the semifinals of the Northeast 10 Confernence Championship. Senior Makenzie Reh finished the game with five goals and two assists, sophomore Emily Holland (Londonderry, N.H./Londonderry) netted two goals, and the Chargers received one goal apiece from Julia Jette (Franklin, Mass./Franklin), Marina Skelly (Ronkonkoma, N.Y./Connequot), Samantha Galler (Marshfield, Mass./Marshfield) and Olivia Serpa (Succasunna, N.J./Roxbury). Caroline Maher (Mansfield, Mass./Mansfield) also chipped in an assist and Gianna Guerra (Stony Point, N.Y./North Rockland) made 10 saves in net for the Chargers. New Haven concludes the season with an overall record of 12-7.
Trailing 10-4 at the half, New Haven fell behind by seven early in the second half and fought to get back within three with just under 10 minutes remaining, outscoring Merrimack 7-5 in the second half and outshooting the Warriors 39-34 in the game. Each team amassed 25 shots on goal, while the Chargers held the edge in draw control (17-11) and ground balls (21-17).
Merrimack (10-8) advances to Sunday's NE10 Championship Game against national No. 1 Le Moyne (19-0).
After both teams traded goals early, Merrimack took control midway through the half, using separate 3-0 and 4-0 runs to build a 10-4 lead by halftime.
The two teams alternated goals to start the game as the Warriors opened up the scoring with a goal in transition just over two minutes in. Holland drew New Haven even at 25:48, taking a feed out in front from Maher to knot the game 1-1.
Merrimack took a 2-1 lead just under three minutes later, only to see the Chargers draw even moments later on a tally from Reh on a free position attempt.
The teams continued to alternate goals as Merrimack answered to retake the lead at 3-2, then built their first two-goal lead of the game with another pass in front from behind the net to go up 4-2 at 17:55, prompting a New Haven timeout.
The Warriors extended the run to 3-0 with another goal coming out of the timeout before Holland drew a foul and buried the free position attempt in the top left corner to get back within 5-3.
But the Warriors responded with four unanswered goals, one of which came on a free position, holding the Chargers scoreless for over seven minutes and taking control of the game, going up 9-3. Serpa broke the spell for New Haven, drawing a foul then driving home the free position attempt to get within 9-4 at the 5:47 mark.
The Warriors struck next just over three minutes later after a New Haven turnover near midfield, and taking it in to build the lead back to six, 10-4 with 2:26 left until halftime.
Guerra made two big stops for the Chargers in the final minute to keep the deficit at six heading into the locker room.
Reh put New Haven on the board in the opening moments of second half with a shot high in the net just 34 seconds into the period to quickly get the Chargers within five. Reh then drilled the crossbar on the next possession and was stopped by the keeper on her next opportunity after New Haven grabbed the ground ball. The Warriors turned the defense into offense, scoring on each of their next two possessions to get the lead up to a game-high seven, 12-5, with exactly 23 minutes remaining, forcing another New Haven timeout.
After Nolan rang one of the post, New Haven retained possession which allowed Jette to get the Chargers back on the board with her first goal of the contest to make it 12-6.
Not going away, New Haven fought to get back within four on two straight goals by Reh. After backing up two shots that sailed wide, Reh drew a foul and notched her third goal of the game off the free position to get the Chargers within five once again at 12-7 with 16:49 to play. Following a save on a free position attempt, Nolan picked up a ground ball to set the table for Reh's fourth goal of the day that cut it to 12-8.
After Merrimack scored to go back up by five, Galler took a pass from Reh and scored her 29th goal of the season to make it a four-goal game once more, then Reh dished out another assist to Skelly, who found the back of the net just under a minute later to cut it to 13-10 with 9:28 remaining.
The Warriors scored once more to go back up by four, but Reh had the answer for the Chargers unassisted at 7:44 to make the score 14-11. Neither team would score again until Merrimack iced the game away with a free position goal with 1:46 remaining, bringing it to 15-11.
Reh's five goals and two assists on Saturday helped her finish her career tied for second all-time in program history with current assistant coach Ashley Wolcott (Ferrandiz) with 186 career goals, and finish fourth all-time with 244 career points.
