Springfield, Mass. - May 4, 2022 - The Springfield College women's lacrosse program held on to defeat Coast Guard, 13-10, on Wednesday afternoon at Stagg Field in the New England Women's And Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Women's Lacrosse Championship Tournament Semifinal. 

Springfield will host the NEWMAC title on Saturday as the Pride are the top seed in the tournament. 

Taylor Pichel (Hopkinton, Mass.) led all players with five goals in the contest. Katie Martel (Hartland, Conn.) became just the 19th student-athlete to score over 100 goals over a career as the senior pitched in four goals for Springfield. Katie Campbell (Somers, N.Y.) tallied 13 draws, while Hannah Hibbert (Center Harbor, N.H.) contributed four caused turnovers in the win. 

Shannon Schmidt had a hat trick for the Bears, while Maici Mintchwarner had 11 saves in the setback. 

After Coast Guard took the first lead of the game at the 10:53 mark in the first quarter, Springfield pumped in three-straight goals to close the quarter with Jade O'Connor (Baltimore, Md.) getting free from Bears' defenders to bury the goal to put the Pride up 3-1. The Pride kept up the scoring the early goings of the second quarter as Arielle Johnson (Woodstock, Conn.) dumped a pass down to Pichel for the score just 20 seconds into the frame to make it 4-1 with 14:39 to go. A free position from Martel, then another strike from Pichel capped off six unanswered goals from Springfield to put the Pride ahead 6-1 with 7:21 to play in the half. Coast Guard finished the half with back-to-back goals and scored with just nine seconds remaining to put the score at 6-3 at the break. 

In the third quarter, the Pride were able to pull out to a 9-5 lead as Holly Rivers (Danbury, Conn.) connected with Anjelia Altebrando (Miller Place, N.Y.) in transition to give Springfield a four-goal cushion with 5:54 to play, however Coast Guard would not go away as the Bears buried three-straight goals to end the third to only trail by a one-goal margin at 9-8. Martel gave Springfield a boost to start the final period as the senior cashed in two straight goals to improve the Pride's lead to 11-8. Coast Guard scored two goals over the following seven minutes, while O'Connor deposited a free-position score to make 12-10 with 2:40 to play. The Bears would force a turnover and receive two great opportunites to cut down to a one-goal game, but Haley Moody (Wells, Maine) pocketed a shot up high with 1:11 to go to stave off a comeback from the Bears. Pichel would go on the attack in transition and rifle in her fifth-goal of the game to seal the victory for Springfield. 

The Pride awaits the winner of Babson/MIT in Saturday's Championship game to played on Stagg Field at 1:00. 

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