Springfield, Mass. – April 26, 2023 – In their regular-season finale on Wednesday night, the Springfield College women's lacrosse team outlasted Coast Guard, 15-14, in overtime in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) play on Stagg Field.

With its third overtime victory of the season, Springfield boosted its record to 10-7, 6-3 in conference play and clinched a home game in the upcoming conference tournament.  The Bears fell to 10-6, 6-3 with the setback. 

Jade O'Connor (Baltimore, Md.) was once again masterful on the offensive end as she tallied seven points off six goals and an assist and netted the 100th goal of her career while at Springfield College after transferring to Alden Street.  Arielle Johnson (Woodstock, Conn.) and Maddie Roy (Wilbraham, Mass.) each had three goals and an assist and Hannah Hibbert (Center Harbor, N.H.) won five draw controls.  Emily McDermott (Marshfield, Mass.) made 10 saves in goal for the win in a game where the Pride was outshot 27-24.

For the Bears, Gianna Cascio had a team-best five points, including four assists, and Mia Becker snagged 11 of the visitors 19 draw controls.  Maici Mintchwarner came in at halftime and was charged the loss as she made three stops in the final 31-plus minutes.

Johnson scored three goals in the opening 6:34 of the game before Roy added her first goal of the day following a terrific inside feed from O'Connor at the 5:45 mark as the Pride opened up an early 4-0 advantage.  Springfield would maintain a 5-1 edge when O'Connor got free down the right alley with 12:57 left in the second quarter, only to have the Bears storm back with four unanswered goals in a six-minute stretch to tie the game up for the first time on the evening at 5-5 with 5:01 on the clock.  Springfield would close out the quarter with a scoring spree, getting three goals in just 1:41, including O'Connor's 100th goal at Springfield as the buzzer sounded to conclude the half as the Pride went into the locker room with an 8-5 cushion. 

The visitors would score five goals off nine shots in the third quarter and had its lead grow to 10-8 at the 5:30 mark following back-to-back strikes from Sarah Skurat off inside feeds from Cascio.  Hibbert would account for the Pride's first goal of the second half with 36 seconds left in the third following a tremendous individual effort to make it a 10-9 contest entering the fourth. 

Roy and O'Connor would strike in the opening 1:43 of the fourth to give Springfield back the lead at 11-10.  After Coast Guard evened things up just over 30 seconds later, Springfield would get two scores of Lauren Landino (South Windsor, Conn.) and O'Connor's fifth of the game at 7:01 as the hosts advantage balloon to 14-11.  However, Coast Guard would close out the game with three goals in the final 5:50 to force overtime, including a pair of Abby McAllister markers in the final 2:20.

Coast Guard would win the opening draw in overtime, only to have Johnson cause a turnover on the Bears clear to give the hosts possession.  After settling into the offensive third, Springfield turned to O'Connor, who would bury her third overtime winning goal of the season, pushing her season goal total to 61, to seal the victory. 
 
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