Box Score

DALLAS, Pa.  – Sophomore Grace Murphy (Montclair, Va.) led the Bison with a pair of goals and an assist as the Nichols College women's lacrosse team completed its weekend trip with a 12-6 setback to Elmira at Misericordia's Mangelsdorf Field on Saturday afternoon.
 
Murphy, the lone Bison scorer in the second half, was joined in the goal column by sophomore Erica Antonison (Albertson, N.Y.), sophomore Alyssa Bufis (Linden, N.J.), senior Shayna Ramalho (Monroe, Conn.) and first-year Alexa Smith (Salem, N.H.). Sophomore Stephanie Mathewson (Simsbury, Conn.) paced the squad with five ground balls to go along with three each by junior Shelby Aminti (Pepperell, Mass.) and rookie Molly MacKoul (Rochester, N.H.). Rookie netminder AnneMarie Fana (Lawrence, Mass.) turned away a career-best 15 shots as she fell to 2-4 on the year.
 
Six different Soaring Eagles found the back of the net including sophomore Ashton Hogan (Shelburne, Ontatrio) who netted four goals and freshman Moorea Spoljaric (Saugerties, N.Y.) who deposited three. Spoljaric also led all student-athletes with four ground balls while junior Rebecca Matturro (Smithtown, N.Y.) and sophomore Melissa Mongillo (Shelton, Conn.) each corralled a trio of draw controls. Junior LeAnna Presler (Livonia, N.Y.) exited the game with four saves and the 6-5 lead to earn her third win of the season (3-2). Senior Mary Kate Gellerman (Frederick, Md.) was called upon to make one save in the second half.
 
Elmira scored the first three goals and was interrupted by Bufis' marker with 15:14 left in the opening half. Following three more Soaring Eagle tallies, Smith began a Bison four-goal outburst 22:21 into the contest as Nichols trailed 6-5 after 30 minutes of action. Murphy netted the only Bison goal of the second half with 27:35 left to play as Elmira outscored Nichols 6-1 for the 12-6 final.
 
Nichols led the Soaring Eagles 18-10 in clears and was awarded five of the nine free position attempts while Elmira had the advantage in ground balls (26-16) and draw controls (14-5).
 
The Bison return to New England and head to Roger Williams for the 2013 Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) opener on Wednesday. Opening draw is set for 7:00 p.m. Elmira returns to Mangelsdorf Field for a 1:00 p.m. matinee tomorrow.