Boston, MA – Senior forward Melissa Belmonte (South Boston, MA) tallied five points, including three goals for her seventh career hat trick to lead the University of Massachusetts Boston women's ice hockey team over visiting Castleton State College, 7-4, in and ECAC East contest today at the Clark Athletic Center on the campus of UMass Boston. The Beacons have now won four straight games and improve to 10-9-1 overall and 8-7-0 in ECAC East, while the Spartans fall to 5-15-0 and 2-13-0.
Belmonte opened the day's scoring when she scored at 2:44 of the first period with an assist from senior forward Andrea Ciarletta (Watertown, MA) and freshman defenseman Amanda Cianciulli (Billerica, MA) to give UMass Boston a 1-0 edge. Belmonte's second score came on an assist from Ciarletta and junior forward Lauren O'Connor (Everett, MA) and gave the Beacons a 4-1 lead with 14:16 gone in the second period, while her third tally capped the scoring with 3:17 left in the game, courtesy of a helper from Ciarletta and freshman blueliner Katelyn Corsino (Belmont, MA). Ciarletta did some scoring of her own, netting a goal at 14:59 of the first period to become the first player in school history to reach 150 career points and just the 12 th player in NCAA III. Freshmen defensemen Katelyn Pohlman (Newton, MA) and Stephanie Medeiros (Somerset, MA) assisted on the milestone goal to give UMB a 2-0 margin. Ciarletta's second score came with 4:28 left in the middle period off a feed from Belmonte and Corsino for a 5-1 UMass Boston advantage.
Belmonte fed Medeiros at 6:10 of the final period for her first collegiate goal and a 6-1 Beacons' lead, but Castleton answered with three straight goals to pull to within 6-4 at 13:15 of the third period. Adrianna Riggio scored at 7:25 of the third stanza and Nicole Adams followed at 11:31 to make it 6-3. Riggio's second goal of the day and eighth of the season cut the margin to two goals, but it would be as close as the Spartans would get. Freshman forward Katelyn Sawyer-Lajoie (Marlboro, MA) potted UMass Boston's third goal of the day on a combined assist from Casey Turner (Melrose, MA) and Kimberly Davidge (Blackstone, MA) with just 1:37 left in the first period
Sophomore goaltender Jessica Sams ( Bellingham, MA) stopped three shots, while allowing no goals in the first period for the Beacons, before yielding to senior Shannon Palmer ( Lynn, MA), who turned away 16 shots in the final two periods of play. Vanessa Carter made 49 saves for Castleton.
UMass Boston will be in action again on Tuesday, February 6 when it hosts Trinity College (CT) at 7:00 p.m. on Senior Night at the Clark Athletic Center, while the Spartans host New England College on Saturday, February 10 at 7:00 p.m.
