Late First Half Run Lifts Western New England to 12-8 Win over Mount Holyoke

Hutter & Ruby pace Golden Bears with three points each

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (April 6, 2019) – The Western New England University women's lacrosse team closed out the first half with four unanswered goals and went on to post a 12-8 victory over Mount Holyoke College on Saturday afternoon in non-conference action at Golden Bear Stadium.

Top Performers
Juniors Kaitlyn Hutter (Stamford, Conn.) and Eileen Ruby (New Fairfield, Conn.) paced the Western New England offense with three points each, as Hutter registered a hat trick and Ruby finished with two goals and one assist.

Sophomore Reilly Miller (Goshen, N.Y.) and freshmen Liz Mazza (East Longmeadow, Mass.) and Samantha Vitka (Stratford, Conn.) contributed two goals each for the Golden Bears.

Junior defender Madison Lemire (Ellington, Conn.) recorded a game-high six ground balls, while sophomore goalie Kaitlyn Marchant (Londonderry, N.H.) finished with 12 saves on 20 shots.

A trio of Lyons posted three-point efforts, including freshman Abby Baldwin (Florence, Mass.), who scored a team-high three goals. Freshman Caroline Flynn (Williamstown, Mass.) tallied two goals and one assist while junior Julianna Rankin (Annapolis, Md.) finished with one goal and two assists.

Game Review
Mazza got the Golden Bears on the board with an unassisted goal 1:23 into the contest, and the Lyons equalized at the 26:17 mark as Flynn scored on a feed from Rankin.

Western New England quickly regained the lead as Ruby set up senior Kristen Breen (Ellington, Conn.) to make it 2-1 (25:53), and just 20 seconds later Ruby tallied her first of the game to give the Golden Bears a 3-1 advantage.

Mount Holyoke responded with a pair of goals from Baldwin (24:56, 22:54) to tie the score for the second time, but Western New England again pulled ahead by two (5-3) as Ruby and Hutter struck for unassisted goals at 20:55 and 18:10, respectively.

The Lyons tied the contest for the final time (5-5) after senior Deyscha Smith (Boston, Mass.) buried consecutive goals midway through the half.

Western New England kept Mount Holyoke off the board for the remainder of the period, however, while Miller (13:32), Vitka (11:39), Hutter (9:37) and Mazza (4:54) all scored late in the half to put the Golden Bears up 9-5 at the break.

The score remained the same over the first 14 minutes of the second half, before Miller found the back of the net at the 15:45 mark to increase the home team's lead to 10-5.

Flynn answered for the visitors 32 seconds later and Rankin scored at 14:08 to make it 10-7, but the Lyons would get no closer.

Vitka and Hutter notched unassisted goals shortly after to extend Western New England's lead back to five (12-7), and the Western New England defense limited Mount Holyoke to just one more goal, as Baldwin capped the scoring with 5:21 left in the contest.

Notes
• Western New England outshot Mount Holyoke 34-28, including 23-13 in the first half.
• The Golden Bears capitalized on 3-of-6 free position shots, with all three goals coming over the final 11:39 of the opening half.
• With the win, Western New England improves to 12-6 in 18 all-time meetings with Mount Holyoke.

Up Next
Western New England (6-5) plays its second straight non-conference contest on Monday night at Western Connecticut, while Mount Holyoke (5-5) travels to Boston to face Emerson next Wednesday.