SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. - Aided by multiple point efforts from six different players, the Mount Holyoke College lacrosse team posted a 20-4 victory over Eastern Connecticut State University on Wednesday evening. The non-conference affair saw the homestanding Lyons move to 5-3 on the season, while the Warriors are now 0-8.
Mount Holyoke got things going quickly, recording six goals in less than three minutes to open the contest. Rookie attack Caroline Flynn (Williamstown, Mass./Mount Greylock Regional) notched back-to-back scores in the opening minute, while junior midfielder Reina Torrez-Miner (East Lansing, Mich./East Lansing) fired home the Lyons third goalat 28:34. Following goals from junior captain Julianna Rankin (Annapolis, Md./Annapolis) and senior attack Deyscha Smith (Boston, Mass./Academy of the Pacific Rim), the Lyons grabbed the 6-0 advantage as Torrez-Miner recorded her second of the contest at 27:05.
Eastern Connecticut State got on the board at the 24:57 mark as senior attack and captain Michelina Pinto (Groton, Conn./R.E. Fitch) buried a shot past Lyons keeper Mia Wysocki (Longmeadow, Mass./Longmeadow) on the free position. The momentum proved to be shortlived as the Lyons tacked on three more goals, including back-to-back scores from first year attack Abby Baldwin (Florence, Mass./Northampton) and the first of the contest from senior captain and midfielder Haley Subocz (Northampton, Mass./Northampton) at 20:25 for a 9-1 advantage.
The Warriors once against capitalized on the free position less than a minute later, pulling the score to 9-2 as senior captain and midfielder Erin Sheehan (North Branford, Conn./North Branford) fired a shot in, but the Lyons countered at the 17:31 mark as Smith fed the ball across the zone to Flynn for her third of the game. Sophomore Sydney Hogan (Northford, Conn./North Branford) and junior midfielder Stacey Brodeur (East Lyme, Conn./East Lyme) tacked on tallied to close the gap to 11-4 at 10:31, but Mount Holyoke added three more scores, two from Baldwin and the other from sophomore attack Meryl Phair (Stockbridge, Mass./Monument Mountain Regional) for a 14-4 lead at halftime.
Second half action belong to the Lyons as they held Eastern Connecticut State off the scoreboard and fired in six goals of their own. Senior captain and attack Mazzie Meotti (South Glastonbury, Conn./Watkinson School) recorded consecutive goals to open the stanza, while Smith notched her second and third of the game under 10 minutes.
The Lyons were paced in the contest by Smith, who recorded a game-best eight points on three goals with a game-high five assists. She also had six shots on goal, four ground balls and two caused turnovers. Baldwin notched a game-best five goals with two assists for seven points, adding a ground ball and a game-high seven draw controls to go along with a caused turnover and a ground ball. Flynn posed four goals and two assists for six points, adding two ground balls, a draw control and a caused turnover, while Rankin had a game-best five ground balls and three caused turnovers. Defensively, the Lyons also saw sophomore Chelsea Braz (Coventry, Conn./East Catholic) add a game-high three draw controls.
For the Warriors, Brodeur had two caused turnovers, a ground ball and a draw control to go with her goal. Pinto added a goal and also recorded a team-high five draw controls with two ground balls and two caused turnovers, while junior midfielder Tristan Kijak (Windsor, Conn./Windsor) had a ground ball, three draw controls and a caused turnover.
In goal, Wysocki earned the win for MHC, recording one save over the first 30 minutes of action. Sophomore Sophia Brooks-Randall (Providence, R.I./St. Mary Academy - Bay View) played the second half in relief, she was not forced to make any stops. For Eastern Connecticut, senior Jessica Purick (Riverhead, N.Y./Riverhead) recorded 10 stops in the loss.
Mount Holyoke returns to action on Saturday when it hosts conference-rival MIT at 12pm on the Turf Field. Eastern Connecticut State is also in action Saturday, hosting Southern Maine in their conference opener at 12pm.
