Norfolk, VA – Sophomore midfielder Lauren Carrier (Crownsville, MD/Old Mill) matched her career-high of eight points as Carrier helped No. 14 St. Mary's (Md.) College put a stop to its two-game losing streak with a 17-7 victory over Virginia Wesleyan College Saturday afternoon.

Carrier notched six goals, including four in the first half, and two assists in helping the Seahawks improve to 3-3 on the year. St. Mary's will be idle for eight days before traveling to Ewing, NJ to face top-ranked The College of New Jersey on March 18 at 1:00.

It was 1-1 after the first 3:37 of play with Carrier striking first at 27:33. The Seahawks disrupted the tie with three consecutive goals including two from Carrier to go up 4-1 at 19:14. The Marlins (1-4) stopped SMCM's run with a goal by Aimee Sraver 32 seconds later.

St. Mary's finished out the half with a 2-1 run as Carrier and sophomore attacker Emily Norris (Timonium, MD/Dulaney) combined for the two goals and gave their team a 6-3 lead at halftime.

The Seahawks came out firing in the second half, rattling off six unanswered goals including two that were six seconds apart in the half's first 34 seconds of play. Jillian Boyd put an end to VWC's scoring drought at 17:17 when Boyd made good on a free-position shot.

Three more goals were tacked on by St. Mary's before the two teams traded the game's final four goals.

The Seahawks out-shot Virginia Wesleyan, 36-19 and won 14 of 26 draw controls, while the Marlins out-hustled St. Mary's 37-28 on groundballs.

SMCM's senior midfielder Katy Perry (Hingham, MA/Hingham) finished the afternoon with a hat trick, including scoring two in 54 seconds, and assisted on freshman midfielder Nikki Yesalavage's (Cranbury, NJ/The Peddie School) at 10:57 in the second half.

Freshman defender Karisa Carroll (Long Island, NY/Ward Melville) paced the Seahawk defense with a game-high eight ground balls.

KC Marchwicki had three goals for the Marlins, while Boyd added two and eight loose ball pick-ups.

Senior goalie Melissa Puzak (Arnold, MD/Broadneck) earned the win with seven saves, while VWC's Ashley Sippel took the loss as she turned away nine shots.

2007-03-11