Cambridge MA- The Lelsey University Women's Soccer team honored six seniors at tonight's NECC Conference match at Edwards Field. Goaltender Lilly Donovan (Newburyport, Mass), forward Sarah Pochobradsky (Rotterdam, NY), defender Maddy Kelly (San Jose, Calif), midfielder Karlie Rubin (San Diego, Calif), defender Anna Squillante (Sauderstown, RI), and defender Samantha Turnbull (Holtsville, NY) were congratulated at half time for their success as a senior class.
The Lynx capped off a special night with a 3-0 victory over Becker College earning them a perfect 8-0 record in NECC Regular Season play. The 8-0 record put the Lynx at the top of the standings and with an automatic by as the one seed in the NECC Championship Tournament. With the loss, the Hawks slipped to 5-3 in conference, and claimed the fourth seed in the championship tournament.
"Tonight we played against a very hard working and disciplined team," said head coach Paul Vasconcelos. "I thought we played really well tonight and were unlucky in our finishing."
The Lynx had six shots, including three hitting the posts before they would snap their unwarrented luck and net the first goal. In the 28th minute, Senior Karlie Rubin put a corner kick to the middle of the box where classmate Samantha Turnbull got a head on it. The header struck the top crossbar, but Junior McKenna Straube (Junction City, OR) followed up with another header that also hit the cross bar. The loose ball found Rubin ten yards out where she blasted it past the goalie for a 1-0 lead going into half time.
Lesley put pressure on the Hawks defense at the start of the second getting off seven shots to Becker's zero. Straube beat a Hawks defender with fancy ball handling and created space for her to make a diagonal pass to Junior Jordan Mitchell (Sachse, Texas) just outside the eighteen. Mitchell one touched it passed the defender for a clear shot on net, giving the Lynx a 2-0 lead.
In the 88th minute Junior Kai Morehead (Oxnard, Calif.) connected with Straube for the final goal of the night and end to a perfect 8-0 record in regular season conference play.
"We are thrilled to be the number one seed and know that as long as we are playing, we will be playing in Cambridge. The staff is very proud of our accomplishments this far, but know we still have some tough games ahead of us," concluded Vasconcelos.
Becker goaltender Jordyn Martel had four saves on the night, but it was the Lynx outshooting the Hawks 20-4 that proved to be the difference.
No. 4 seed Becker will host No. 5 seed Baypath University Saturday October 28th in the first round of the NECC Championship Tournament. Lesley awaits the winner of that match and will host them on Wednesday November 1st at 8pm.
