FRAMINGHAM, Mass. -- The Mount Ida College women's lacrosse team fell on Wednesday afternoon in a back and forth battle with the Rams of Framingham State University by a final score of 15-12.
Mount Ida freshman and two time Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Player of the Week Alyssa Kelly (Lee, Mass.) tallied a game high five goals on 13 shots while causing two turnovers and picking up four ground balls.
Nicole Pavao (Peabody, Mass.), Sam Basler (Plymouth, Mass.) and Nikki Kinneen (Salem, Mass.) all notched two goals apiece in the Mustang setback (2-6, 1-0 GNAC) while Emily McConnell (Dracut, Mass.) added a lone tally. Kinneen added two helpers while McConnell added one alongside Briana Barker (Westerly, R.I.).
Rams sophomore Kimmy Foley (Mansfield, Mass.) paced the Framingham State with three goals and two assists as the Rams and Mustangs opened the scoring by exchanging goals over the course of the first ten minutes.
Tied at 3-3, the Rams rattled off five straight goals over the next 14 minutes including an unassisted goal from sophomore Mallory Fredericks (Templeton, Mass.) to open up an 8-3 lead.
The two teams traded goals over the closing minutes of the stanza with the Rams taking a 10-6 edge into the locker room.
Kelly cut the Ram lead down to three in the opening minute of the second half as she carried the ball the length of the field and scored, but freshman Shea Riley (Fairhaven, Mass.) pushed the advantage back to four for the Rams just two minutes later.
The Rams extended the lead back to five on a marker from sophomore Morghan Cassella (Lowell, Mass.) with just over 20 minutes remaining in the game. Basler scored for Mount Ida cutting the lead back to four, but junior Kristen Hoggins (Harvard, Mass.) struck with 16:42 remaining to extend the lead back to five.
The Rams led 15-9 heading into the final minute after Foley registered her third marker of the game, but the Mustangs tallied three goals including a pair from Nikki Kineen (Salem, N.H.) to reach the final margin.
Freshman Indigo Fox Tree-McGrath (Bedford, Mass.) and senior Alysha Cericola (Waltham, Mass.) combined to make 13 saves for the Rams with Cericola collecting eight in her half of action.
Mustang freshman keeper Jackie Tarsook (Derry, NH) recorded seven stops for the Mustangs.
Mount Ida is back in GNAC action on Saturday afternoon when they play host to cross town rival Lasell College with game time set for 12:30 PM. The Rams (3-3, 0-0 MASCAC) are back in action Saturday when they open MASCAC play at home against Salem State at 10:00 AM.