SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (April 30, 2016) - The fourth-seeded Western New England University women's lacrosse team held off fifth-seeded Gordon College, 16-13, in the first round of the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Championship this afternoon at Golden Bear Stadium.
 
With the win, the Golden Bears (12-6, 5-3 CCC) advance to Wednesday's semifinal round to take on top-seeded Roger Williams in Bristol, R.I. Gordon sees its season come to a close at 6-10 (5-3 CCC).
 
Senior Brooke Kumnick (Granby, Conn.) led the way for Western New England, recording a team-high six points (four goals, two assists) to go with a game-high seven draw controls. Sophomore Julia Winer (Longmeadow, Mass.) registered a hat trick, while seniors Taylor Scialdone (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.), Bethany Peters (Baiting Hollow, N.Y.) and Ashley Brunner (Stratford, Conn.), and freshman Kristen Breen (Ellington, Conn.) also turned in three-point efforts.
 
Sophomore goalie Shannon McFadden (West Islip, N.Y.) made a game-high eight saves in the cage, and her counterpart, Gordon sophomore Zita Nagel (Wayland, Mass.) stopped five shots.
 
The Fighting Scots were paced offensively by senior Jessica Castelline (Concord, Mass.), who led all players with eight points on six goals and two assists. Freshman Olivia McCarrick (Glen Burnie, Md.) found the back of the net three times, while classmate Hannah Bourk (Barrington, R.I.) finished with two points (one goal, one assist) and four draw controls.
 
The back-and-forth first half featured five lead changes, the last of which came on Brunner's unassisted goal with 3:43 remaining in the period that gave the Golden Bears an 8-7 advantage.
 
Senior Tori Cirocco (Carmel, N.Y.), who was making just her second appearance since suffering an injury in Western New England's 16-12 win at Castleton on March 10, scored her 12^th goal of the season on a feed from Scialdone 24 seconds later as the Golden Bears took a 9-7 lead into the break.
 
Gordon regained the momentum early in the second half, tying the contest with goals from Castelline and McCarrick in the opening five minutes, but Kumnick and Winer restored Western New England's two-score cushion with goals at the 24:08 and 21:22 marks, respectively.
 
Castelline's fifth goal of the game with 19:13 on the clock cut the Fighting Scots' deficit to one (11-10), before the Golden Bears were able to extend their lead back to four with a 3-0 run that featured goals from Kumnick, Peters and Brunner.
 
Junior MC Aston (Greenwich, N.Y.) fueled Gordon's final rally with a pair of late goals, the second of which came with 7:10 remaining, but the visitors were unable to close the gap as Breen notched her tenth goal of the season with just under five minutes to go and Scialdone made it 16-12 in favor of Western New England 38 seconds later.
 
Castelline capped the scoring at the 1:58 mark, and the Golden Bear defense did the rest of the work to secure Western New England's trip back to the CCC semifinals.
 
Gordon outshot the Golden Bears by a 34-27 margin, but the teams were even in shots on goal (21-21) and ground balls (14-14), while Western New England held the edge in draw controls (19-12).