Women's Lacrosse falls in Season Debut to Elms 18-7

North Adams, MA- Elms' Haley Richard netted 7 goals and an assist in leading the women's lacrosse team past the MCLA Trailblazers 18-7 this afternoon at Shewcraft Field.  Elms improves to 2-0 on the young season, while MCLA drops their season opener and is now 0-1.

Elms never trailed in this one as Vanessa Vurno tallied just 2:35 into the contest converting a free position attempt for a 1-0 lead.  Richard would get on the board with her first marker of the day two minutes later and Elms led 2-0.  MCLA's Sara Tomkiewicz scored her first collegiate goal at the 23:57 mark of the opening half to slice the lead to 2-1, but Elms responded with four straight goals to take command.  Richard scored a pair of goals in that stretch of action.

MCLA's Kim Granito tallied back to back unassisted goals to cut the deficit to 7-5 with still thirteen minutes left til halftime, but Elms would outscore MCLA 6-1 over the final minutes of the half to take a 13-6 lead at the break.

In the second half, the two teams traded goals before Elms would clamp down on MCLA and hold them scoreless over the final 24 minutes of play.  They would ultimately extend the lead as Richard closed out the scoring with two more goals in the half.

Vurno ended with 4 goals and 4 assists for Elms.  Alli Zadworny potted three goals.  Richard filled out the stat sheet with 7 draw controls and 7 groundballs to lead the team.  Emily Huber (2-0) earned the win for the Blazers and collected 1 save.

MCLA was paced by Granito's 5 goals, 6 groundballs, and 5 draw controls.  Tomkiewicz netted two goals in her collegiate debut.  Shannon Prouty (0-1) absorbed the loss for MCLA stopping 12 shots.

Both teams were sloppy as they combined for 51 turnovers in the match.

The Trailblazers host Sage on Thursday night as they continue non-league play.