WESTON, Mass. – The #1 Regis College women's lacrosse team moved on to their third straight New England Collegiate Championship game as they defeated #4 Elms by a 18-4 margin. With the victory, the Pride improve to 12-5, 8-0 NECC and with the loss the Blazers drop to 7-10, 4-4 NECC.
Regis will now host #3 Wheelock College for the NECC Championship on Sunday at noon.
The Pride scored eight straight goals in 15 minutes to begin the contest as they held a sizeable lead the whole game. Junior midfielder Sam Salamone (Milford, Mass.) opened up the scoring 31 seconds into the contest by converting a free position attempt. Four minutes later senior attack Katie Haidemenos (Warwick, R.I.) cocked back a shot a few yards out that found the back of the net after senior attack Grace Politis (Billerica, Mass.) found her teammate which increased the Pride lead to 2-0.
Sam Salamone scored her second goal of the contest when she sliced through the Blazer defense, ripped a low shot that was initially deflected by goalie Meeghan O'Connor (Fall River, Mass.), but bounced in the net off her pad.
Senior midfielder Teresa Busiek (Arlington, Mass.) added to the Regis lead with her first goal of the game as she made a move on a Blazer defender one-on-one and fired a shot that tickled the twine. About 30 seconds later, senior midfielder Sashae Walls (Everett, Mass.) made a free position shot and Sam Salamone scored her third goal of the half after Busiek passed the ball in front to Salamone who deked the goalkeeper to increase the Pride lead to 6-0.
Haidemenos and Salamone each scored a goal as Regis held an 8-0 lead at the 15:56 mark. Elms scored their first goal of the contest when senior midfielder Kayla Narey (S. Hadley, Mass.) converted a free position attempt to cut the deficit to 8-1.
Regis added three more goals before Elms scored again when junior attack Jillian Pirog (Ludlow, Mass.) cut through the Pride defense and ripped an open shot past Regis goalie Emma Decker (Southborough, Mass.) that decreased the Pride lead to 11-2.
The Crimson and Gold scored three more times before the period ended to head into the intermission up 14-2.
There was less scoring in the second half as both teams combined to score only six goals. Junior attack Ashley Cava (Wilbraham, Mass.) scored two goals during the second stanza for the Blazers while the Pride had four different players score as they took the contest 18-4.
Emma Decker was solid between the pipes for the Pride as she improved to 12-5 on the season while making three saves. Sam Salamone led all scorers with five goals and Teresa Busiek had a seven point day as she scored four goals and dished out three assists.
Meeghan O'Connor took the loss for the Blazers as she stopped 13 shots while Ashley Cava led the team in scoring with two goals and freshman midfielder Madison Jung (Stafford Springs, Conn.) led the squad with a game-high four groundballs.