Curry pulls away late to best Bison

Recap, photo courtesy of Nichols College

MILTON, Mass. – The Nichols College women's lacrosse team held a 5-4 lead early in the second half, but Curry College used a 6-1 run to end the game and pull away for a 10-6 victory over the Bison in a Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) matchup on Tuesday afternoon in Milton, Mass.

The Bison fall to 1-5 overall and 0-3 in the CCC, while Curry improves to 3-4 and 1-1 in league games. Nichols steps out of conference play in their next game when they travel to Rhode Island College on Thursday night at 6:30 p.m.

Junior Kirsten Sullivan led the Bison with two goals on the day, while sophomore Danielle Kozloski, senior Mellissa LaFleur, and senior Rachel Birmingham all found the back of the net. Freshman McKenna Gernander also scored her first career goal for Nichols, with sophomore Lindsey Gerzabek and senior Lindsay O'Connell registered assists.

Defensively, sophomore Emily Eagan recorded a career-best 26 saves to go with a groundball and two caused turnovers. LaFleur grabbed a team-best four groundballs while corralling six draw controls, while sophomore Miranda Smith picked up three groundballs in the setback.

Curry was led by four goals from sophomore Abby Dubel, while freshman Katie Parker had two goals and three assists, with freshman Allie Wysocki recording four points on three goals and an assist. Freshman Amy Collard picked up the win in goal for the Colonels, stopping 15 shots.

The Colonels held a 51-31 advantage in shots, while groundballs were even at 11 apiece. Curry committed 12 turnovers, to 15 for the Bison, while Nichols was 17-of-23 on clears and the home team went 16-of-17.

Curry jumped out to a 2-0 advantage before Sullivan opened the scoring for the Bison to make it a 2-1 game with 14:11 remaining in the first half. Wysocki answered for Curry nearly five minutes later to jump back on top, 3-1, but the Bison scored the final two goals of the period on tallies from Sullivan and LaFleur to knot the game at 3-3 headed into the break.

The Colonels opened the second half with a tally from Parker, and Nichols was able to take its first lead of the game on back-to-back goals from Kozloski and Gernander to make it a 5-4 game with 23:08 to play in the half.

Unfortunately for the Bison, the Curry offense took control of the game, scoring six-straight goals from the 23-minute mark to the 10:15 mark of the period to grab a commanding 10-5 lead. Rachel Birmingham's second career goal with 1:15 to play gave the game its final score, 10-6.

All-Time Series
Tuesday marked the 19th meeting between the two teams and the Colonels lead the all-time series, 15-4.