MANSFIELD, Conn. -- Goals by first-year midfielder Emi Bisson gave the Mount Holyoke College lacrosse team leads of 1-0 and 2-1 in the early going, before host Eastern Connecticut State University took control with a 5-0 run en route to a 20-8 non-conference victory Wednesday evening.
Caroline Stent scored six goals for the host Warriors (1-1), while Alex Vizzini added five goals and an assist.
The Lyons (1-1) dropped to 2-7 all-time against ECSU.
Emi Bisson finished with three goals, six draw controls, four ground balls and two caused turnovers, and junior captain Hannah Bisson (South Hadley, Mass.) added two goals for the Lyons (1-1). First-year Amelia Knaysi (Grand Junction, Colo.) scored her first goal and added an assist, six draw controls and three ground balls. Sophomore captains Madison Millyan (Winchester, Mass.) and Ella Phillips (Sandwich, Mass.) both scored a goal apiece.
ECSU outshot Mount Holyoke by a 37-22 margin, including a 33-19 difference in shots on goal. Mount Holyoke junior Emma Tower (Dover, N.H.) made 13 saves in goal, while Emma Alford made 11 saves for ECSU.
Emi Bisson interrupted the Warriors' 5-0 first-quarter run with her third and final goal of the game, scored on a free-position shot with 14 seconds left in the first quarter, closing ECSU's lead to 6-3.
Hannah Bisson and Knaysi scored back-to-back goals just 44 seconds apart in the second quarter to close the Lyons within two (7-5). But 48 seconds after Knaysi's score, ECSU answered with a goal by Shay Ventresca, assisted by Vizzini. Ventresca then fed Stent and Jessie Pyrek-Bennett on consecutive goals, and Vizzini added another score to make it 11-5 with 6:25 remaining in the half.
The Warriors then scored the first three goals of the third quarter, outscoring the Lyons 7-0 over a span of nearly 17 minutes of game time. Goals by Hannah Bisson and Phillips at 7:45 and 7:02 of the third quarter closed the gap to 14-7, but that was as close as Mount Holyoke would come the rest of the way.
Mount Holyoke flies to Austin, Texas, next week to play two neutral-site games at Southwestern University: vs. Sewanee on Monday at 1pm (ET) and vs. North Central (Ill.) on Wednesday at 1pm (ET).
