SMITHFIELD, R.I. – For the second time in two seasons, the Bryant University women's lacrosse team will play for the NEC Tournament Championship, only this time, the top-seeded Bulldogs will take on a formidable Wagner College side Sunday afternoon at the Bryant Turf Complex at 1:00 p.m.
The Seahawks (11-6) get to the title bout after a convincing 17-7 victory over three-seed Robert Morris in Friday's second NEC Semifinal, paced by nine combined goals from sophomores Stephanie Peterson and Kimmy Tumolo. The Bulldogs (14-3) saw the trio of Lisa Vendel (Sandy Hook, Conn.), Haley Bloom (Hauppauge, N.Y.) and Lauren Descalzo (Hauppauge, N.Y.) tally 11 scores in a 13-7 win over fourth-seeded Central Connecticut.
Wagner leading scorer Shea Gegan found the back of the net just once in Friday's semifinal but paces the Seahawks with 47 points on the season, including 29 goals, good for third best on the side. Peterson and Tumolo have 35 and 30 tallies, respectively, and contribute 43 and 36 points apiece on the 2014 campaign. The Seahawks have also gotten 20+-goal seasons from Olivia Streilein (22), Gretchen Fay (23) and Jessica Mills (24) on the year.
This season, the Bulldogs are paced by Bloom's 58 points, including a team-leading 22 assists. Vendel and Descalzo have 45 goals apiece to pace the side, with the former's 54 points good for second on the team. All three are 2014 NEC First Team selections. Senior goalie and All-NEC Second Teamer Brianna Watt (Babylon, N.Y.) has 119 saves on the season with a .436 save percentage and 8.93 goals against average.
The last time these teams met, the Bulldogs bullied their way to a 7-6 double-overtime victory thanks to Vendel's game winner 1:55 into the second extra stanza. It was the third of the game for the NEC Offensive Player of the Year, who saw classmate Bloom also record a hat trick in the victory. Descalzo was the only other Bulldog to register a goal in the contest, and senior Olivia McCarthy (Sea Girt, N.J.) picked up the team's only assist.
Peterson and Tumolo each picked up a pair for the Seahawks, who saw the Bulldogs limit their top scorer to just a single marker, with Streilein also chipping in a score.
All time, Bryant is 3-3 when facing the Seahawks, and this is the first time the teams have met in postseason play. Sunday's NEC Tournament Championship can be seen live and free of charge at NECFrontRow.com.
