Women's Lacrosse Starts Fast And Holds On For 14-11 Home Win Over Georgian Court

Bridgeport, Conn.-The host University of Bridgeport women's lacrosse team raced out to an 8-1 lead with 3:24 to play in the first half and held a 10-3 advantage at half, but the host Purple Knights saw the visiting Georgian Court University Lions score the first six goals of the second half to make the score 10-9 before UB netted four of the final tallies to pick up a 14-11 non-conference win at Knights Field on a foggy Wednesday afternoon.  With the win, the Purple Knights are now 2-1 on the season.  GCU slips to 0-2 in the early going in 2017.

Senior Lauren Mengel (Gilbertsville, Pa.) led UB in goals on Wednesday with three.

Four UB players each had two goals for the winners in junior Abigail Benesh (Horesheads, N.Y.), sophomore Courtney Forry (Reinholds, Pa.), freshmen Joanna Muniz (Queens, N.Y.) and Barbara Orsini (N. Babylon, N.Y.).

Senior Shannon Colligan (Greenwich, Conn.) had one goal and three assists for Bridgeport, and senior Kerry Mackinnon (Pt. Jefferson Station, N.Y.) and freshman Lindsey Guadagni (Bayville, N.Y.) rounded out the UB goal scorers on the afternoon, each finding the back of the net one time.

With her three points on the afternoon on two goals and one assist, Abigail Benesh became only the second University of Bridgeport women's lacrosse player to top the 100 career points plateau joining Gabriella Valela, who played at UB from 2012-2015, who is the school's all-time leading scorer with 193 points in her stellar time in Purple and White.

Freshman goalkeeper Cheyanne Gangel (Oakridge, N.J.) made four saves for UB on Wednesday.

Samantha Fernandez of Georgian Court led all scorers in the game with five goals.

UP next, the UB women's lacrosse team was scheduled to play at Assumption College on Saturday morning, but with the forecast for extremely low temperatures on early Saturday and the possibility of snow on Friday, that game has been postponed to a later date.  Next on the docket for the Purple Knights is a trip to Dominican (N.Y.) College on Tuesday afternoon, March 7th.