Rinkus' Late Goal Lifts Owls Past Skidmore, 18-17

Nicole Rinkus scored four goals, including the game winner with less than a minute left to lift the Westfield State women's lacrosse team to an 18-17 win over Skidmore College in a non-conference game in Saratoga, N.Y. on Friday night.

Rinkus tallied on the second of back-to-back free position shots, as she was fouled while going to the cage on the first attempt.  Her second consecutive try came from the center hash, and she took a few steps in before firing a shot to the top left corner for the goal with 45.5 seconds left in regulation.

Westfield won the ensuing draw and endured several fouls before being able to run out the clock and secure the Owls fourth straight victory.

Westfield improves to 7-5 on the season, and will be back in action with a quick turnaround tomorrow night, hosting Salem State at Alumni Field in Westfield at 7:00 p.m. in a MASCAC conference game that will also serve as the Owls senior day.

Rinkus' four goals now give her 93 career points, as she creeps closer to the 100 point mark, which has been eclipsed by four of her teammates already this season.

The game was tightly contested throughout.   Westfield started quickly, taking a 4-1 lead midway through the first quarter, but the Thoroughbreds answered by scoring seven of the next eight goals to lead 8-5 just 41 seconds into the second quarter.    Neither team would gain a bigger advantage throughout, and the duo went to the fourth quarter tied at 14-all.

Westfield's Cassidy Connolly converted a feed from Victoria Paras with 5:24 left in regulation to give Westfield a 17-16 lead, but Skidmore used a timeout, and Maeve McKinley scored on the ensuing possession for the Thoroughbreds to tie the game at 17-all with 4:49 to play.

Emma Cretella led Westfield with four goals and two assists. Natalie DeMaio and Rinkus each added three four goals, and Connally and Cassidy Harvey each tallied three goals and an assist.

Westfield's Kara Banagan made 12 saves in goal.

Skidmore had a balanced scoring attack with five different players each netting three goals.

Skidmore out-shot Westfield 39-30, but the other key team stats were virtually identical across the board.  Skidmore slips to 6-7 on the season with the loss.