Bay and Swanson lead Panther scorers

            PLYMOUTH, N.H. – Freshman Mekenna Bay (Maracaibo, Venezuela) and sophomore Caitlin Swanson (Holderness, N.H./Plymouth Regional) combined for eight goals and five assists Thursday afternoon as Plymouth State University defeated Framingham State University, 16-6, in non-conference women's lacrosse action at Arold Field.

            Bay finished with a game-high five goals and two assists while Swanson contributed three goals and three assists to the Panther attack.  Bay tallied three of her goals in the first 10 minutes of the game and four goals and one assist in the first half, while Swanson notched all of her points in the opening 30 minutes as PSU opened up a 12-1 margin at the intermission.

            The Panthers went on to stop a three-game losing skid and improve to 7-5 on the season, while the Rams drop to 4-7 overall.

            After Bay notched her fifth of the game to open the second-half scoring, the Framingham State offense came to life and rattled off three unanswered goals to make the score 13-4. Senior Kathryn Rogers (Wolfeboro, N.H.) countered for PSU with 16:04 remaining to get the margin back up to 10 goals, but Framingham would not give up and added two more goals in the final 15 minutes.

            Sophomore Kristen Guest (Sandwich, Mass.) had a strong game for the Panthers, scoring two goals and one assist and also recording a team-leading six ground balls and five caused turnovers.  Freshman Carol Messler (Durham, N.H.) also registered two goals and two assists for PSU. Rogers grabbed a game-high seven draw controls, and she and freshman Emily Buckle (Danbury, Conn.) chipped in with a goal and two assists each.  Freshman Brittany Mikelic (Danbury, Conn.) also tallied her first career goal late in the second half.

            Sophomore Louie Rijo (Salem, Mass.) led the Rams with three goals, while junior Kerry Kiley (Mansfield, Mass.), senior Stephanie Corrales (Framingham, Mass.) and sophomore Heather Massee (Billerica, Mass.) added one each.  Kiley also led the team with five ground balls, two draw controls and three caused turnovers.

            Framingham State is back in action Saturday with a New England Women's Lacrosse Alliance (NEWLA) contest against Westfield State, while PSU is off until a Little East Conference match-up next Wednesday at Arold Field against the University of Southern Maine. 

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