CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Lesley University led from wire-to-wire and used a team-high 14 points from junior Theresa Pereira (Hopedale, Mass.) to sink Southern Vermont College 45-36 in a New England Collegiate Conference matinee on Sunday afternoon.

Lesley – now 4-2 in their last six games – secures the season-sweep of the Mountaineers and improves to 7-11 on the season and 5-6 in the conference standings. The loss drops Southern Vermont to 1-16 overall and 1-11 in the NECC.

Pereira drained four three's on the afternoon and added dive rebound to her line while sophomore Dakota Jones (Torrance, Calif.) added nine points and a game-best 16 rebounds. Fellow first year Susan Smith (Medford, Mass.) came off the bench for a career-high eight points and classmate Linda Wallentine (Monroe Township, N.J.) finished with seven points and four boards. Sophomore Abby Henderson (Rochester, N.H.) scored four while pulling down five caroms.

Sophomore Amber Lesure (Cheshire, Mass.) powered the SVC attack with a game-high 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting on the day. Lesure came up with three steals and four boards to add to her totals. Freshman Kelly Dobbert (Stamford, Vt.) and senior Amber Down (Panton, Vt.) each finished with five points while first year Sarah Poirier (Ferrisburgh, Vt.) had four blocks, two steals, four rebounds, and two points in 25 minutes of reserve duty.

The Lynx started out hot and used a Pereira triple followed by layups from Jones and Henderson to open up a 7-0 lead and force an early SVC timeout. Following the break  Lesure would interrupt the Lesley spurt with a pair of free throws, but Lesley answered back and closed the quarter out on a 9-4 run to take a 16-6 lead into the second.

The momentum would stay in Lesley's favor to open up the second as back-to-back jumpers from Smith and Pereira gave the Lynx their biggest lead of the day, 20-6, with 8:30 left in the quarter. Lesure and the Mountaineers would claw their way back to cut the deficit down to six following an 10-2 run. The sophomore guard was responsible for seven of SVC's points during the streak. Lesley junior Courtney Goggin (Cheshire, Conn.) answered Lesure with a 15-footer to bump the lead back to eight and give the Lynx a 24-16 lead heading into halftime.

Southern Vermont would twice cut the lead down to six in the early-goings of the third quarter, but each time Lesley would have an answer. After SVC freshman Taylor Mallett (Berwick, Maine) made a layup to cut the score to 26-20, Pereira would knock a triple that would spark a 16-4 run culminating in another Pereira trey to push the advantage back into double-digits.

SVC tried to muster up another run midway through the fourth as a Dow three-ball once again cut the Lesley lead down to six, but a Smith bucket off a feed from senior Hannah Levensailor (Ayer, Mass.) pushed the lead back to eight before Lesley hung on for the 45-36 victory.

Both teams will return to NECC play on Tuesday night. Lesley will travel to nearby Newbury College for a 7:00p tip-off while Southern Vermont heads to Leicester, Mass. for a bout with Becker College, also at 7:00p.