The best teams often get better as the season goes along, especially when the playoffs are soon to come where if you make a mistake, your season could end in the flip of a switch. When a team is firing on all cylinders late going into the playoffs, they can be hard to stop as they have their eyes set on a conference championship.

In the final game of the 2023 regular season, the New Haven lacrosse team came away with a 15-11 win over number-15 ranked Bentley University. Seven players tallied a score for the Chargers in the win, as freshman Marielle Colalillo continued her dominant stretch coming off back-to-back Northeast-10 (NE-10) rookie of the week honors with a five-goal performance.

Bentley started the scoring with back-to-back goals to take an early 2-0 lead, but New Haven quickly responded with goals from Colalillo and attacker Raegan Bailey to tie the game. Just 43 seconds later, Bentley attacker Kenzie Lupton gave the Falcons the lead right back to take a one-goal lead halfway through the first quarter.

The two teams exchanged goals in the final minutes of the quarter as New Haven attacker Savannah Ernst tallied two goals for the Chargers to tie the game at four going into the second quarter.

Attacker Maeve Johnson tallied the first score of the second quarter to give Bentley the lead back, but Colalillo netted her second goal to knot the score at five. New Haven went on a run to close out the first half, opening up a four-goal lead to put some distance between them and Bentley.

After Johnson tallied the first score of the second half to make it a three-point game, New Haven added to their lead with a goal from attacker Kyra Sparks and Colalillo’s fourth score. The final minutes of the third quarter went by quietly as the Chargers maintained a five-goal lead heading into the fourth.

Attacker Cameryn Antler and midfielder Gianna Caprioli stretched the lead to seven with a goal each before Bentley netted five of the game’s next six goals to make it just a three-point game. Caprioli sealed the game on her second score with 1:26 left to play, giving New Haven a 15-11 lead that held until the clock struck zero.

New Haven will head into the NE-10 playoffs for the 14th consecutive season, finishing with an 11-6 record (8-4 NE-10). Going into the postseason as the presumptuous fourth seed, the Chargers will look to make a deep run in hopes of coming away with a conference title.