BOX SCORE WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
>> Saint Francis women's lacrosse made history on Saturday by clinching its first-ever berth in Northeast Conference (NEC) Tournament thanks to a 23-11 win against CCSU on Saturday. The Red Flash will make its first-ever tournament appearance when the tournament commences on May 4 at the home of the regular season champion.
>> After tying the single-game program record for points in a game, graduate student Autumn McHenry (Branford, Conn.) tied the single-game program record for goals in a game with nine against the Blue Devils. She now has a share of the single-game program records for points, goals and assists.
>> Freshman Bella Fisher (Duxbury, Conn.) scored a career-high six goals to establish a new Saint Francis freshman record for goals in a season with 34 tallies. 
>> Danielle Hernandez (New Fairfield, Conn.) added three goals and an assist. With her assist, the junior moved into the program's Top-10 for career assists with 30 helpers and moved into fifth place on the single-season chart with 21 feeders.
>> The 23 goals scored in a game tie the program record for goals in a single game after defeating Radford 23-2 on February 20, 2016.
>> The victory also clinches the team's first-ever winning season in team history and extends its program record winning streak to five games.

TURNING POINT OF THE GAME
Bella Fisher broke a 3-all standstill with a tally at 2:19 in the first quarter and McHenry added a goal for a 5-3 edge. After the Blue Devils scored a goal in the waning seconds of the first quarter, the Red Flash posted 10 goals in the second quarter and never looked back to end a 21-year NEC postseason drought. McHenry scored four times, while Hernandez and Bella Fisher added a hat trick in the second frame.

FLASH QUOTES
"It's exciting to know we have officially qualified for the NEC tournament. We accomplished a major program goal today even though we had several players sidelined with injuries. Although we got off to a slow start, things started to click all over the field in the second quarter. As we start to shift our focus to preparing for post season play, we will continue to fine tune aspects of our game that can put us in a position to win when it matters. None of us are ready for the season to end so I know we will keep working hard to be at our best over the next few weeks." - head coach Tracy Coyne on the game

FLASH MOMENTS
Saint Francis jumped out to a 3-1 lead. Lizzie Fisher (Hagerstown, Md.) got the scoring started with a tally off a pass from Kelly Dickson (Blue Bell, Pa.) at 13:40 before Dickson connected with McHenry at 12:05 for a two-goal lead. Nancy Alden (New Lyme, Conn.) scored unassisted at 8:54 for a 3-1 edge.

Hernandez notched three goals in the second quarter with an unassisted tally to start the quarter 51 seconds into the period, off a pass from Dickson at 11:35 and unassisted at 11:32.

McHenry, who before play on Wednesday had a career-high four markers in a game, registered four goals in the second quarter. The graduate student found the twine unassisted at 13:55, 3:57, off a connection from Hernandez at 3:42 and unassisted with two seconds left in the half. 

Bella Fisher registered back-to-back scores at 10:47 off a feed from Colleen Roche (Miami, Fla.) and unassisted at 9:29 and 3:30 to help the Loretto program go into halftime with a 15-7 advantage.

Bella Fisher and McHenry had two goals each in the third quarter, while Bella Fisher also dished out an assist to Lizzie Fisher at 10:33 in the frame. Bella Fisher recorded goals at the 14-minute mark and off a Dickson pass at 12:27. McHenry scored unassisted at 13:40 and with 6:23 left in the third quarter to extend the Saint Francis lead to 20-10 after three quarters.

Alden found the twine for the second time off Roche's second feeder at 11:06, while Makayla Murray (Bow, N.H.) twinkled the twine at 6:47 from Dickson's fourth assist of the afternoon. McHenry capped the offensive outburst by tying the single-game program record for goals in a game by an individual and the team unassisted with 3:15 left in the game. 

FLASH NUGGETS
McHenry tied Danielle's Conwell's point record on Wednesday against FDU with six goals and four assists for 10 points. Conwell had nine markers and an assist against Binghamton on February 26, 2012 to hold both the points and goals record alone before McHenry tied her standard in points on Wednesday and then had nine goals against CCSU to tie her goals mark on Saturday. McHenry also tied the single-game assist mark by Katie Schaaf twice, including once against CCSU on March 20, 2021.
 
McHenry, who also had eight draw controls, three caused turnovers and two ground balls, finished the week with 15 goals and four assists for 19 points. She moved into fourth place on the program's all-time career goal list with 121 tallies. The graduate student also moved into second place in career draw controls with 224 draws, while she finished with two ground balls to go into her next contest needing one ground ball for 100 ground balls in her career. 

McHenry has registered her second-straight 40 goal season and move into the single-season chart for goals with 43 tallies, which sit seventh on the single-season chart and bests her mark from last year by two goals. Her 58 points this season also sits fifth in single-season history.

Bella Fisher, the current NEC Rookie of the Week, broke the Saint Francis freshman goals record held by Emileigh Scott (32, 2018) and Kate Simmons (32, 2009) with her goal with 14 minutes left in the third quarter and then added another score to finish the day with 34 goals this season. The freshman, who has scored at least five goals in a game three times this season including a career high on Saturday, now has 40 points this season to sit second on the freshman chart in the category and five from tying Schaaf's (45, 2013) program record.

Hernandez notched her fifth game this season with at least three goals. She moved into the Top-10 for career assists with 30 helpers and moved into fifth place for assists in a season with 21 assists. With at least three games remaining the junior needs six assists to tie the single-season record.
 
Dickson registered a career-high four assists on the day after dishing out a then career-best three helpers against Longwood in the season-opening win against Longwood on February 22. After coming into the season with one goal and three assists, the senior has 14 goals and 15 assists for 30 points in her final campaign.

Bella Burke (East Moriches, N.Y.), the current NEC Defensive Player of the Week, paced the defense with three caused turnovers, three ground balls and four ground balls. Chyler Espino (San Francisco, Calif.) tallied four ground balls and two caused turnovers.

Elyssa Enrique (North Canton, Ohio) made eight saves in 45 minutes of action for the Red Flash.

The five NEC wins is a new standard after registering four league wins in 2021 during an extended NEC schedule thanks to COVID-19. The team now has a program-record nine wins and has a five-game winning streak after posting five three-game winning streaks in program history prior to this run.

The team posted 45 goals in the week to break its mark for most goals in a week. The team had 38 goals against Howard and Stonehill early this year in a week after posting 19 goals in each game.

NEXT TIME OUT
Saint Francis returns to DeGol Field for its final two home games of the season, starting with a non-conference game against St. Bonaventure on Wednesday. Match time is 3 p.m.