UMass Dartmouth always proves to be a season-deciding opponent for the women’s lacrosse team. The Huskies and the Corsairs usually end up as the middle pair in the Little East Conference, and have met each other for the first round of play-offs three of the last four years.
Over those four years, USM has won only two games to UMass Dartmouth, including a regular season win in 2005 and the first first-round play-off win in recent history last year.
The Huskies upped those numbers on Saturday, when they beat their rival at home in double overtime, 10-9.
The game was fraught with penalty troubles, including five penalties and several yellow cards.
Head coach Sue Frost was not pleased with the calls, some of which were on what she called “beautiful checks,” but was proud that her team pulled through and took the win.
“We stepped it up and got over what was going on,” she said.
The game winning goal came from junior Caitlin Albert (Scarborough) with less than 50 seconds left on the clock in the sudden-death overtime period, which came after the first six-minute overtime in which each team earned one goal.
Albert had two goals in the win, and senior Justene Dorr (Gorham) led the team with three. Other points came from freshmen Mary Vaughn (Brunswick) and Kristy Kendrick (Waterboro), and sophomore Jess Knight (Alfred).
Senior goalie Katie Quartuccio (Poughkeepsie, NY) had 13 saves.
With the win, the Huskies improve to 4-6 overall and 3-1 in the conference. They have one four of the last five games. They play next on Monday versus Bates in Gorham.