Lacrosse falls at home to Becker 17-8
Natalie Caney scored four goals for MCLA in their loss to Becker
orth Adams, MA- The visiting Becker College women's lacrosse team received six goals and a pair of assists from Rachel Welling, while Victoria Belcher added four goals and two assists in the Hawks 17-8 win over MCLA in a match played at Shewcraft Field.
The Hawks improve to 5-8 overall while the Trailblazers fall to 3-6 on the season.
In the opening half of play, Becker got off to a strong start jumping ahead 6-1. Kailee Ruyack and Rachel Welling each had a pair of goals to lead the offense early on. MCLA would rally and scoring a goal after a Becker penalty and a pretty goal from McKenzie Cutler to trim the deficit to 6-3 with under ten minutes to play in the half. Becker would respond with four straight goals to get back in front by a comfortable margin at 9-3. Welling converted a free position shot to highlight the spurt and add another marker with six seconds left giving the Hawks a 10-3 lead at halftime.
Welling and Ruyack each had four goals to pace Becker. They outshot MCLA 25-8 in the half and owned a 19-12 advantage in collecting ground balls. Both teams were sloppy with the ball as MCLA had 22 turnovers while Becker had 16 of their own.
Becker quickly extended out to a double digit lead in the second half after scoring four of the first five goals in the period to lead 14-4. Victoria Belcher scored a pair of goals in the early second half spurt for the Hawks. MCLA got within 15-7 after a Taylor Brewer goal, but Becker responded with goal from Welling to stem the tide and the Hawks wouldn't be threatened from there.
The Hawks owned a convincing 41-21 shot advantage over the Trailblazers in the contest. Nikolle Storey earned the win in net collecting 9 saves for Becker. Kailee Ruyack added four goals for the Hawks offense.
Caney paced the MCLA offense with three goals and an assist while Rachel Green added a pair of goals herself. Zoe Elwell took the loss for the Trailblazers stopping 11 shots.
MCLA is back in action on Saturday when they host Fitchburg State University at Shewcraft Field at 3pm in MASCAC action. The Hawks will also return to conference play challenging NECC foe Elms at home at 3:30pm.