After a thrilling overtime victory, top seed Worcester State claims back-to-back MASCAC Women's Lacrosse Tournament titles after defeating Westfield State 14-13 on Saturday afternoon.

The Lancers started out aggressive on offense and defense as they caught the early lead 3-0. The first three goals were scored by junior Madigan Kelly (Bourne, MA), senior Shannon Donahue (Midfield, MA), and junior Kerry Brown (Billerica, MA). Worcester held the lead for the majority of the first quarter until the Owls cranked up their offense and tied the score 3-3 from graduate student Chistina Roncarati (East Longmeadow, MA), senior Mercedez Rozzi (South Burlington, VT), and first year Kayli Bush (Westfield, MA) with just over a minute left in the first quarter. 

About half way through the second quarter, Brown scored her second goal breaking the tie and giving the Lancers the lead back 4-3. Westfield kept the pressure on with sophomore Marena Morales (Tolland, CT) scoring her first goal not long after to bring the tie back 4-4. Just before halftime, Rozzi scored her second goal of the day giving the Owls the first lead of the game 5-4. With 19 seconds left in the first half, Worcester State senior Molly Witkowski (Greenville, NY) keeps the game close with another goal making the score 5-5 going into halftime. 

Both teams kept the energy up heading into the second half. Brown and Witkowski started off the quarter with two goals to get Worcester the lead back 7-5. Westfield attack senior Arianna Andresen (Port Jefferson Station, NY) responded quickly with her first goal out of a free position shot. Less than a minute later, Worcester State junior Meghan Bowen (Westfield, MA) had her first goal to bring the score to 8-6. The Owls stayed on their toes with two back to back goals from Rozzi and freshman Bri McPhilips (Montgomery, NY) bringing it back to a tied game 8-8. Witkowski gave the Lancers the lead back quickly 9-8, before Westfield went on a four goal streak with two goals from Roncarati, one from Emily Heslin (?), and one from Morales at the start of the fourth quarter, giving Westfield the lead 9-12. 

Worcester State senior Mckayla Fisher (Peabody, MA) scored her first goal at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Westfield protected their lead for almost ten straight minutes, as Morales scored her third goal of the game to make it 10-13 with four minutes of game time remaining. The Lancers offense did not lose focus and saw freshman Fallon Lozano's (Upton, MA) first goal of the day, as Fisher followed that with two goals making it 13-13, and recording her career 200th point to tie up the game once again and send the match into a five minute overtime. 

After two and a half minutes of aggressive defense on both sides of the field, Kelley closed out the game just as she started it with the winning goal for the Lancers. 

With the conclusion of the game Fisher was honored as the MASCAC MVP.

What's Next:

With the victory, Worcester State advanced to the NCAA tournament. The selection show is scheduled to air on Monday, at 10:30am at NCAA.com.