SPRINGFIELD, Mass. Junior Stefanie Dufresne (Belchertown, Mass.) potted four goals to help lift American International College past Saint Michael's College, 10-6, on Senior Day in Northeast-10 women's lacrosse action this afternoon from Abdow Field.
The Purple Knights finish their season 3-13 overall and 2-11 in conference play while AIC concludes the regular season 9-8 and 6-7 in the NE-10 good for seventh place.
The nine victories sets a new single-season program record and with a seventh place league finish the Yellow Jackets advance to the Northeast-10 Championship Tournament for the first time in program history and will battle No. 2 seeded Le Moyne on Wednesday afternoon.
"This is the perfect culmination of my four years here" mentioned senior Cheyenne Carden. "We played as a team all year and proved to everyone the potential we had as a unit."
"We had great wins and tough losses, but we were always able to bounce back all season" mentioned head coach Ashley Casiano. "We played as a team this season. The games we did loose we played individualized. Today the game plan was to play as a team and play together. It was an exciting season I'm excited for the girls and we are going to give Le Moyne a game."
The game opened as a defensive battle as Saint Mike's goalie Grace Gunning played out of her mind making nine saves during the opening 30 minutes. The Jackets managed just a 3-1 lead going into the half on a pair of goals by senior Cheyenne Carden (Branford, Conn.) and one from Dufresne.
Coming out of the break Dufresne scored early and freshman Lauren Witherspoon (Phoenix, Ariz.) for the 5-1 edge at the 27:37 mark. However, Kealy Moyna scored a pair to keep the Purple Knights in the contest for the time being.
Dufresne then took over going coast-to-coast on back-to-back occasions to secure two goals in just 29 seconds for the 7-3 lead with 19:27 left on the clock.
St. Mike's wouldn't go away and crept back within two goals at the 5:26 mark, but Witherspoon tipped the hat-trick with back-to-back tallies of her own with just two minutes remaining and senior Kelly Reilly (Corning, N.Y.) added another late score and a Purple Knight goal with just 15 seconds left did not matter as AIC picked up the victory.
Junior Alexis Torosian (Hopkinton, Mass.) earned the victory between the pipes after stopping eight shots and she also collected a game-high eight ground balls to move to 9-8 on the season.
AIC controlled the draws 14-4 and was also 23-for-24 in clear attempts on the day.
"Possession wins and losses games. The big thing about today was we were faster so we used that to our advantage, but at the end of the day if we have the ball more they have the ball less, " stated Casiano.
Before the game Carden, Reilly, Sydney DeArmond and Whitney McKay were all honored in a brief pregame ceremony for playing in the last home game of their careers.
