Springfield, Mass. - February 29, 2020 - The Springfield College women's lacrosse team took a 12-7 victory over crosstown rival Western New England on Saturday afternoon at Golden Bear Stadium. 

Springfield improves to 2-1 while the Golden Bears are 0-3.

Springfield benefitted from the overall strong play from Taylor Pichel (Hopkinton, Mass.), who finished with six goals, an assist, four draw controls, and a caused turnover. Kate Sarnacki (Granby, Mass.) registed four goals to add to her season total of 18 points. Katie Martel (Hartland, Conn.) scored twice for the Pride. On the defensive side, Katie Campbell (Somers, N.Y.) fielded five ground balls while Brenna Keefe (Acton, Mass.) registered eight saves for Springfield. The Pride won the draw control battle, 14-7. 

For the Golden Bears, Reilly Miller led the way with a hat trick and seven groundballs. Samantha Vitka notched a pair of goals, three caused turnovers, and four draw controls. Ally Hill and Liz Mazza each contributed a goal in the setback. Kaitlyn Marchant made a great effort with 19 saves. Western New England turnover the ball 23 times to Springfield's 17. 

Just under a minute into the contest, Western New England struck first as Liz Mazza nailed a free position goal to make the score 1-0. At 26:05, Arielle Johnson (Woodstock, Conn.) zipped a pass to a cutting Sarnacki, who finished low, giving the Pride the tying goal at 1-1. The Golden Bears responded as Ally Hill scooped up a loose ball and skidded it past Keefe for the score with 23:56 remaining in the game. From there, Springfield would get a boost from Pichel as the junior pumped in a pair of goals to give Springfield a 3-2 lead. Western New England responded with back-to-back goals from Miller, giving the home team a 5-3 lead. Sarnacki capitalized on a free position attempt to trim the deficit to 5-4, going into the half. 

Sarnacki picked up where she left off in the first half by dodging off a defender and bouncing in the 5-5 tying goal for the Pride at the 29:21 mark of the half. At 29:04, Vitka would go unassisted and score to bounce the Golden Bears back up to 6-5. After a free position from Pichel, Martel would benefit from a Pichel pass for the 7-6 lead, but with 24:57 remaining in the game, Vitka would tie the game once again at 7-7. From there, Springfield would ramp up the offensive attack finishing the game scoring five unanswered goals to take home the 12-7 victory. 

Springfield will host Amherst on Wednesday at 6 pm. 

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