BIDDEFORD — Down 11-7 to Bridgewater State with 23 minutes to go, and with very little going right, the University of New England women’s lacrosse team desperately needed someone, or something, to turn things around Saturday.
Enter junior Rachel Schwaner, who in a matter of moments turned what had been the Nor’easters’ biggest weakness all day into a major strength.
After UNE had lost 13 of the opening 20 draw controls, Schwaner won three in less than a minute as the Nor’easters scored three goals in 50 seconds to get within a goal.
Schwaner continued to control the draw circle the rest of the way, allowing the Nor’easters to build on the early second-half charge’s momentum as they scored 10 goals in the space of 15 minutes on the way to an 18-16 victory in a non-conference Division III game at the Big Blue Turf.
The win improved UNE to 4-1, its best start since 2010, and avenged an 8-5 loss to Bridgewater last March. The Bears dropped to 2-2.
“You win the draws and you pretty much win the games,” said UNE junior Gina Newsome, who tallied four of her team-high five goals in the second half. “We all kind of just came together at halftime and figured out (what) we needed to do.”
Schwaner was only in the circle due to the absence of senior Johanna Currier, who is out for the season with an injury. Currier led the team in ground balls and was a first-team all Commonwealth Coast Conference selection in 2013, and with her 5-foot-8 frame was a major asset on draws, something the Nor’easters have been worked on replacing.
Schwaner didn’t have a single draw control in UNE’s first four games before coming up with a game-high nine Saturday.
“Rachel was really coming up with it and making things happen for us,” UNE coach Sue Estabrook said. “I think that’s a change we’ll be making down the line. With (Currier) out, we’re still trying to figure out what to do on the draws.”
Bridgewater State won 11 of the 16 draw controls in the opening half, allowing the Bears to control possession on the way to 9-6 halftime lead. UNE didn’t help themselves either, consistently turning the ball over against the Bears’ ride as the Nor’easters were just four of 12 on clear attempts in the first 30 minutes.
“We were rushing a little bit too much,” Estabrook said. “We weren’t taking our time with it and were just pushing it to much, so it was just calming everybody down and making sure to take it one step at a time.”
UNE also had just 10 shots in the first half to Bridgewater’s 18, but with six of those 10 finding the back of the net, it was simply a matter of getting more balls on goalie Allie Forman’s cage.
“We didn’t come out as a team, and we’re all about team this year,” Newsome said. “We’re not one person doing it alone, so we had to start doing things for each other.”
It was Newsome who got UNE going in the second half, cutting from the right and beating Forman high to close the Bears’ lead to 11-8. That’s when Schwaner made an impact, winning the resulting draw, which led to a Cole Dion goal 18 seconds later.
Schwaner again won the draw, and 32 seconds later, Hannah Warner scored to make it 11-10.
Bridgewater State’s Alex King scored to put the Bears back up by two, but a pair of Newsome free position goals tied the game at 12-12 with 14:01 to play.
UNE’s leading scorer Hannah Tavella was largely quiet up to that point in the second half due to a Bridgewater State face guard. Then, she got into the action by creating a goal out of nothing, starting when she deflected Forman’s attempted clearing pass right on the crease.
Tavella tracked the ball down behind the goal, swiveled and found an oncoming Jessica Deedon, who slotted her shot past Forman to give the Nor’easters their first lead since it was 3-2.
“That was huge,” Estabrook said of Tavella’s play. “It changed the whole energy.”
Bridgewater scored two of the next three goals to tie the game up again at 15-15, but Newsome put UNE up for good with 6:31 left when she beat her defender and fired a leaping shot past Forman.
Goals from Deedon and Katie Cawley followed to give UNE a 17-14, and after the Bears closed to within 17-15 on a Lauren Geary goal with 4:30 left, Tavella scored off a pass from Newsome to put the Nor’easters out of reach with 2:33 to play.
“We attacked on their mistakes in the second half, which was crucial,” Newsome said. “We made things happen, and that was a good thing.”
King had five goals for Bridgewater, which held a 36-29 lead in shots, but UNE goalie Courtney Kendall making 15 saves to Forman’s eight.
In addition to Newsome’s five goals, Tavella scored three times and added two assists to go to a team-high 34 points on the season. Cawley chipped in three goals off the bench, while Schwaner also scored twice and was a key part in UNE’s 12-8 edge in draw controls in the second half as the Nor’easters came storming back.
“If we keep playing like we did in the second half today,” Newsome said, “we’ll be sailing.”
— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or cdunbar@journaltribune.com.
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