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Smithfield, RI – The top-seeded Bryant Bulldogs rallied to win their second straight Northeast Conference (NEC) Women's Lacrosse championship, overcoming a three-goal deficit with a big second-half run in posting a 15-10 win over the Wagner Seahawks.
 
With the loss, the Seahawks, who have now reached the NEC championship game in consecutive years under second-year head coach Liz Frisoli, wind up with a 9-10 overall record after going 5-2 in NEC play. Bryant, now 14-4 after going 6-1 in league, will find out its NCAA Tournament opponent tonight on the NCAA Selection Show at 9:00 pm.
 
Unlike last year's NEC title game, when Wagner got off to a slow start against Bryant, the Seahawks began the game with a scoring flurry that had the Bulldogs on their heels and began with beautiful spin move by freshman midfielder Lauren Ednie (Verona, NJ/Verona) just 2:21 into the contest. Less than a minute later, junior midfielder Jessica Roberts (Baldwinsville, NY/C.W. Baker) made it 2-0. It took just 34 seconds after that for junior midfielder and NEC Defensive Player of the Year Shea Gegan (Belmar, NJ/Manasquan) to find sophomore attacker Olivia Streilein (Mt. Laurel, NJ/Lenape) for a point-blank shot that gave Wagner a 3-0 edge.
 
Bryant briefly stopped the momentum on a goal by Tournament MVP Shannon Burns, the first of her seven scores on the day, which came at 25:12 and made it a 3-1 game. Roberts then tallied again for Wagner five minutes later as the Seahawks briefly regained a three-goal cushion at 4-1 before the Bulldogs responded two minutes later with a goal by All-NEC First-Team attacker Emily Columbus that made it a 4-2 game with 18:43 left in the half.
 
Following a more than 10-minute minute scoreless stretch, junior attacker Kimmy Tumolo (Mullica Hill, NJ/Clearview) found the back of the net to put the Seahawks up 5-2 with 8:36 left on the first-half clock.
 
Bryant cut into the lead in the last five minutes of the half a goals by Morgan LaBarber and Burns, the latter a free-position shot at the 2:19 mark, that made it 5-4 but Gegan had the answer for Wagner, scoring her first of the game with 17 seconds before halftime to give the Seahawks a 6-4 advantage at intermission.
 
Wagner took just 1:47 in the second stanza to extend the lead to 7-4 as Tumolo set up Streilein with a gorgeous feed as the sophomore notched her second goal of the game. Burns completed her hat trick less than a minute later to keep Bryant within striking distance, at 7-5, but Gegan's free-position shot (FPS) restored Wagner's three-goal lead at the 26:36 mark.
 
The goals were coming fast and furious at this point as Columbus raced downfield and scored to pull Bryant to within 8-6 with 26:11 left. When Burns notched her fourth of the game on a free position shot, the Bulldogs were within 8-7 with 25:13 to play.
 
Tumolo quickly converted her own FPS to push the Wagner lead to 9-7 with 24:38 remaining. Bryant then went on an 8-0 run over a span of 12:02, capped by Burns' seventh goal of the game with 10:17 left that gave the Bulldogs a 15-9 lead.  The scoring spree began when on a Skylar Zlotnick that pulled the Bulldogs to within 9-8. Burns scored her fifth less than a minute later, to tie the game at 9-9 with 20:50 to play.  It took just 28 seconds after that for Burns to tally her sixth on an FPS to give the Bulldogs their first lead of the afternoon at 10-9 with 20:22 left.
 
A pivotal moment in the game then came at the 19:24 mark when Gegan, Wagner's top scorer and the nation's leader in caused turnovers and ground balls, left the game after being assessed her second yellow card.

With Wagner minus Gegan and Bryant holding the momentum, the Bulldogs' run continued with 19:06 remaining when NEC Offensive Player of the Year Lauren Descalzo, who has been bottled up all day by the Seahawks' vaunted defense, recorded her first goal to up the Bulldog lead to 11-9. When Descalzo converted a FPS with 12:28 to play, the Bulldogs lead grew to 12-9 on its way to 15-9.
 
Freshman midfielder April Simmons (Branford, CT/Branford) snapped a 20-plus minute dry spell for the Seahawks, with a goal at the 3:55 mark, as her second point of the day capped the day's scoring and fashioned the final score at 15-10.

Bryant goalkeeper Samantha Santeramo finished with five saves, while her counterpart, junior Katie Ferraro (Owings Mills, MD/McDonogh), stopped six shots for Wagner.
 
Columbus followed Burns' seven-goal effort with a hat trick for Bryant while Descalzo added two goals after scoring six in Friday's semifinal win over Robert Morris.
 
Wagner was led by Gegan and Tumolo, who each finished with two goals and an assist. Streilein and Roberts also wound up with two goals apiece, followed by Simmons (1G, 1A) and Ednie (1G).
 
Bryant out-shot Wagner 27-22, held a slight 14-12 edge in ground balls and won 17-of-27 draw controls.
 
For the second straight year, junior midfielder Gretchen Fay (Spring Lake Heights, NJ/Manasquan), who scored three goals in Friday's 15-6 semifinal win over Mount St. Mary's, and Ferraro were named to the NEC All-Tournament team. Joining them on the All-Tourney team were senior midfielder Jessica Mills (Vernon, NJ/Vernon Township), who had three goals and three assists vs. the Mount, and senior defender Megan Sardella (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool), who had three ground balls and one caused turnover today, in addition to scoring a goal in Friday's win.
 
NEC All-Tournament Team
Shannon Burns (BRY) – MVP
Nicole Britton (BRY)
Emily Columbus (BRY)
Lauren Descalzo (BRY)
Gretchen Fay (WC)
Katie Ferraro (WC)
Jessica Mills (WC)
Megan Sardella (WC)
Melissa Cox (MSM)
Marley Heller (MSM)
Megan Wolfgang (RMU)
Kristin Yoviene (RMU)

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