WESTON, Mass. – The Regis College women's lacrosse team was handed their second straight defeat by non-conference opponent Emmanuel College Thursday evening at Regis Stadium. With the win, the Saints move to 8-2 on the year and the Pride drop to 6-5 with the loss.
The non-conference loss was Regis' fifth of the season and dropped them to 3-5 overall out of conference. Emmanuel is 3-2 in non-conference tilts this season. Regis never led once throughout the game.
Senior midfielder Sarah Higgins (Groveland, Mass.) was a huge factor in the contest as she tallied a game-high six goals, scooped up 10 groundballs, caused six turnovers and won five draw controls. Fresh off being named the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Player of the Week, Kristen Tuleja (Mansfield, Mass.) racked up three goals, seven groundballs and caused four turnovers.
Leading the Pride was Sam Salamone (Milford, Mass.) who scored five times and had her seventh straight multi-score game. The senior captain added three groundballs and two draw controls to her stat line. Fellow senior captain Mary Roma (Portland, Maine) matched her season high scoring mark with three ginos with one of the markers coming on a free position attempt.
After six minutes of back and forth play, the Saints opened the scoring when Higgins corralled a pass to the front of cage and rolled the ball past Pride goalkeeper Emma Decker (Southborough, Mass.) to push the guests out front 1-0 in the early going.
A few seconds later Salamone knotted the score as she converted a top shelf free position shot with 23:19 left in the half. The Saints responded with Tuleja receiving a nifty pass from junior attack Emily Baker (Stratham, N.H.) off a successful clear attempt and the Emmanuel captain bounced a shot into the net to regain the lead for the Saints.
Four minutes passed before Salamone dangled through the Saints defensive unit and bounced a shot home to tie the contest up 2-2 with 16:45 left before the intermission. This would be the last time the game was tied as the guests outscored the hosts 6-1 before the break to go up 8-3 at halftime.
Regis kept fighting as they scored 45 seconds into the second stanza. Mary Roma spun off her defender and deposited a shot into the right side of the net to make it an 8-4 game. Emmanuel would outscore Regis 5-1 over the next 15 minutes of the game with two tallies from Higgins, Sophia White (Monterey, Calif.) and one marker from Tuleja to increase their advantage to 13-5. Regis then went on a scoring run of their own with Roma and Salamone accounting four the final four goals, but it wasn't enough as the Saints left Weston with a 14-9 win.
Senior goalkeeper Lauren White (Lynnfield, Mass.) moved to 8-2 on the season as she stopped six shots and Emma Decker dropped to 6-5 as she made 11 saves on 25 shots.
Regis returns to the field on Saturday when they travel to Mitchell for an 11:00 a.m. New England Collegiate Conference contest.