Sniffen leads Bulldogs past Red Flash

SMITHFIELD, R.I. --  Senior Kimberley Sniffen (Redding, Conn.) scored four goals while senior Lisa Vendel (Sandy Hook, Conn.) and sophomore Lauren Descalzo (Hauppauge, N.Y.) each added three tallies to help lead the Bryant University women's lacrosse team to a 20-7 Northeast Conference victory over visiting Saint Francis University here Sunday afternoon. 

With the win, Bryant moves to 10-3 overall and stays undefeated in conference play at 4-0.  Saint Francis, led by Rachel Larson's (Corning, NY) four goals on the day, drops to 4-8 (1-2 NEC).

Sniffen helped get the Bulldogs off to a strong start, scoring a pair of unassisted goals as the Bulldogs led 3-0 just six minutes into the contest. Senior Haley Bloom (Hauppauge, N.Y.) made it 4-0 after taking a nice feed from teammate Olivia McCarthy (Sea Girt, N.J.) from behind the net and beating SFU starting goalie Heather McKee (Bel Air, Md.) with her 21^st goal of the season.

Larson would get the Red Flash on the board with an unassisted goal two minutes later, but Bryant would come right back a minute later. On the ensuing draw, Sniffen would force a turnover near midfield and picked up the ground ball where she would find teammate Vendel in the Bryant offensive zone. Vendel would work the ball around the SFU goal and proceeded to hit a cutting Sniffen who ripped a hard shot past McKee for her third goal of the day, giving the Bulldogs a 5-1 advantage.

"Kim does a great job of picking the team up when we need it," said Bryant coach Jill DePetris-Batcheller following the game. "She's such a great athlete and she really helped set the tempo today."

Vendel would notch her 31^st goal of the season shortly after to make it 6-1 as the Bulldogs would closed out the first half on a strong note, scoring six goals to take a 12-4 lead into the locker room at the break.

In the second half, the Bulldogs picked right up where they left off as a pair of goals from McCarthy and one from Bloom in the opening three minutes made it 15-4 and the Bulldogs never looked back.

Senior Brianna Watt (Babylon, N.Y.) made five saves in goal for the Bulldogs before giving way to freshman Kaycee Asquith (Rumford, R.I.).  Asquith would finish with a pair of saves.

"I'm very pleased with the way we played," added DePetris-Batcheller.  "We're at the midpoint of conference play and we wanted to come out strong and the entire team played really well and were fired up today and it showed. "

McKee finished with seven saves in goal for the Red Flash who also saw goals from Danielle Conwell (Succasunna, N.J.), Casey Burk (Moorestown, N.J.) and Holly Lawrence (Damascus, Md.) on the afternoon.

Bryant will hit the road for an NEC matchup at Central Connecticut this Friday (4 p.m.) and the followed by a trip to LIU-Brooklyn on April 25 before returning home to play host to Sacred Heart in the regular-season finale on Sunday, April 27.