PHOTO GALLERY
WEST HAVEN, Conn. – After trading goals for the first 17 minutes of the game, the New Haven women's lacrosse team rattled off five straight and never looked back as they defeated No. 15/20 Bentley 15-11 to close out the regular season.
With the win, New Haven improves to 11-6 on the season and 8-4 in the Northeast-10 Conference, finishing in a three-way tie for fourth place. Following tiebreakers, the Chargers will enter the NE10 tournament as the sixth seed, traveling to Adelphi for a quarterfinal matchup on Tuesday. Opening draw against the Panthers is set for 5:00 p.m.
That five goal rally for the Blue and Gold closed out the second quarter as the Chargers took a 9-5 score into the halftime intermission. After allowing a first goal from Bentley following the break, the Chargers extended their rally to 9-1, opening up a comfortable 13-6 lead.
Overall, seven players accounted for the Chargers 15 goals, led by freshman Marielle Colallio who drilled a career-high five goals, her fifth-straight game with four or more and her 11th straight game with at least one goal. Just one other Charger recorded a hat trick on the afternoon with graduate transfer Savannah Ernst (American Fork, Utah/American Fork) closing out the game with three scores. She also added an assist for four points, while adding four draw controls and a caused turnover.
Senior Cameryn Antler (Hebron, Conn./Mercy) and sophomore Gianna Caprioli (Clinton Corners, N.Y./Franklin Delano Roosevelt) finished the game with a pair of goals apiece, the latter of which adding an assist for three points total. Rounding out the Chargers scoring was sophomore Raegan Bailey (Cheshire, Conn./Cheshire), senior Annie Acquavita (Cheshire, Conn./Cheshire) and junior Kyra Sparks (Jefferson, N.J./Jefferson Township). Bailey also led New Haven with two assists and nine draw controls, while Cypress Levitt (Calais, Vt./Montpelier) finished with four draw controls.
Defensively, goalkeeper Gabby Buscemi (East Patchogue, N.Y./Patchogue-Medford) finished out the regular season with seven saves against the Falcons, facing 26 total shots from Bentley. One of her biggest stops came with just over three minutes remaining in the game as the Falcons looked to make a late push scoring a stretch of five goals in six minutes before Buscemi protected the cage on another shot attempt while her defensive teammates secured the ground ball.
Prior to taking on the Falcons, New Haven honored its three graduating student-athletes; Savannah Ernst (American Fork, Utah/American Fork), Annie Acquavita (Cheshire, Conn./Cheshire) and Michaela Boulay (Suffield, Conn./Suffield).
