Box Score WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 1, 2016) – Trailing 4-0 midway through the first half against a one-win UDC Firebirds squad, the Molloy College women's lacrosse team scored eight straight goals to battle back and take a 19-13 decision on Sunday (May 1) in Washington, D.C. The win capped Molloy's regular season at 11-6 overall with a 5-3 mark in East Coast Conference play, officially sealing a berth into the ECC Tournament as the fourth seed. UDC falls to a final record of 1-13 with a mark of 0-8 in ECC action.
Senior midfielder
Katie O'Brien (Oyster Bay, N.Y.) collected a team-high six points with four goals and two assists in the win. Freshman midfielder
Brianna Wilson (Levittown, N.Y.) and senior attacker
Ariana Cavallone (Glen Cove, N.Y.) each added three goals and an assist to total four points in the regular season finale. Sophomore attacker
Jessica Markowitz (Baldwin, N.Y.) had three goals and junior middie
Cooper Sesselman (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) added two goals and two assists for the Lions.
Molloy watched as the hosts scored the first four goals of the contest with freshman midfielder Vanessa Valentine (Staten Island, N.Y.) scoring the final marker in the Firebirds' run to give her side a 4-0 advantage with 13:47 to play in the half. Two minutes later, O'Brien beat goalie Dani Falco (Middletown, N.Y.) to put the Lions on the board and open up the proverbial floodgates. In the following seven minutes of lacrosse action, Markowitz added three goals while Wilson scored two and both O'Brien and Sesselman added a marker. The maroon and white led 8-4 with under five minutes remaining when senior Amber Walls (Temple Hills, Md.) quelled the rally with her second goal of the game to make it 8-5 with four-and-a-half minutes left in the period. O'Brien, Wilson and Sesselman added one more goal each to get the Lions to an 11-goal first half while Walls put one in the back of the net with six seconds remaining as Molloy went into the halftime break up by five goals.
Walls totaled four more goals in the second half alone, but Molloy built enough of a margin to overcome the impressive performance from the UDC midfield. Cavallone had a hat trick in the second half of play, while O'Brien,
Angela Bollettieri (Plainview, N.Y.),
Kim Pepe (Farmingdale, N.Y.),
Brittany Lang (Hicksville, N.Y.) and
Lindsay Cafiero (Bethpage, N.Y.) all scored goals to complete the Lions' scoring account with a 19-goal output and a six-goal win. Freshman goalie
Alyssa Chetti (West Babylon, N.Y.) made six saves in 53 minutes and 40 seconds of game play to pick up her first career collegiate win in the cage.
Molloy is now the No. 4 seed in the upcoming East Coast Conference Women's Lacrosse Championship and will travel to face No. 1 seed Dowling College on Thursday (May 5) at 7 p.m. with a spot in the title game on Saturday (May 7) on the line.
