BENNINGTON, Vt. – After a well-contested start to the game, Southern Vermont College pulled away to defeat Mitchell College 25-10 Thursday afternoon in New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) women's lacrosse action at Everett Field.

SVC was up by a minor 4-3 margin following the first five minutes of action, but the hosting Mountaineers then scored seven straight to go into the halftime break ahead 17-6. Southern Vermont found the back of the net another handful of times in the second period to keep the clock running and capture the sizeable league victory.

Southern Vermont improves to 7-5 on the year and 5-2 in Conference play; it is still unclear whether Thursday's game will be the Mountaineers' final match of the regular season or if they will reschedule a postponed NECC tilt against Daniel Webster College. MC (3-7, 2-6) wraps up the regular season campaign on Saturday with a 12 p.m. non-conference contest at SUNY Purchase.

Senior captain Lauren Nesshoever (Chittenden, Vt.) racked up a team-best eight goals for SVC—her last being her 100th career score as a Mountaineer; she also had seven draw controls, four ground balls and a pair of caused turnovers in the win. Fellow senior captain Emily Lesure (Cheshire, Mass.) notched five goals, three assists and seven ground balls as classmate and captain Mel Orrell (Gloucester, Mass.) had a goal and five assists along with five ground balls, three caused turnovers, and a game-best 10 draw controls.

Mitchell senior Ashley Murtha (South Windsor, Conn.) continued her nation-leading offensive performance by potting a game-best nine goals while adding a team-high nine draw controls and four ground balls. Classmate Willeen Pun (Stamford, Conn.) notched a goal in the effort as freshman goalie Gillian MacLellan (Hebron, Maine) pulled in a team-best six ground balls.

Southern Vermont sophomore keeper Sydnee Julian (Mexico, N.Y.) made three saves in the win (2-0) while MacLellan turned away 18 Mountaineer shots in the loss (3-6) between the pipes.

Playing with only 10 Mariners on the field throughout the day, the visitors grabbed the early advantage when Murtha won the opening draw control and took it the distance before slinging home her first of the day. Nesshoever came back with one of her own before SVC sophomore Sofia Sorriento (Troy, N.Y.) put home back-to-back goals in 22 seconds of clock time for the 3-1 Mountaineer lead.

Scores were traded as Pun made it a 4-3 edge for the hosts with 25:39 left in the opening stanza. That's when Southern Vermont really got things going as sophomore Stephany Ferreira (Shelton, Conn.) fed Lesure before Orrell set up Nesshoever for the three-goal difference. Sophomore Aubrey Vierstra (Saugerties, N.Y.) got one to go before Orrell assisted junior Paige Vitale (Port Jervis, N.Y.) at the 21:24 mark.

Ferreira beat the keeper once again, and Nesshoever then score consecutive tallies to set the score at 11-3. Murtha ended the SVC run to get the hat-trick, but Nesshoever answered before junior Natalie Rose Canterbury (New Hartford, Conn.) sent one into the back of the cage. Goals went back-and-forth through the remainder of the half with Vitale assisting Vierstra's sixth of the year to help the Mountaineers take a 17-6 upper hand to the intermission.

Once play resumed, Orrell won the first draw control and fed Ferreira for the sophomore's eighth of the year only 19 seconds into the half. Back-to-back Lesure scores saw a Murtha response at the other end, but Vierstra came back to notch her first career hat-trick off an Orrell dish. Nesshoever registered her eighth of the game and 100th career goal at the 12:39 mark, and Canterbury then added her sixth of the season for the 15-goal separation.

Murtha scored two more times in the remainder of the match—the second of which was her 83rd of the year. Those sandwiched Vierstra's eighth of 2017 before SVC ran out the clock to tie its top NECC wins mark of five.

– #LetsGoSVC –