SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- Smith College raced out to a 10-1 lead after one quarter, then held off a scrappy Mount Holyoke College lacrosse team for an 18-8 win in NEWMAC play Wednesday night on the MHC Turf.
Sadie Tschider led the visiting Pioneers (6-7, 3-2 NEWMAC) with six points on three goals and three assists. Bella DeAngelo also scored three goals while Sydney Havlick, Reese Gittelman, Gia Arancio, Caroline Sanders and Emma Butterick all scored two goals apiece, with Gittelman adding in three assists.
First-year Emi Bisson (Chester, Conn.) scored a game-high four goals for Mount Holyoke (3-8, 0-5 NEWMAC), to go with one assist. The Lyons also got goals from sophomore Madison Millyan (Winchester, Mass.) and first-years Marielle Welch (Silver Spring, Md.), Taylor Dunn (San Francisco, Calif.), and Elle Mader (Cincinnati, Ohio).
Smith built big advantages in draw controls (20-10) and shots (36-21), while holding Mount Holyoke to nine clears on 23 attempts.
The Lyons regrouped and fared better after the first quarter. Mount Holyoke collected 21 ground balls to Smith's 18, caused 12 Pioneer turnovers, and outscored Smith in both the second and fourth quarters of the game.
The two teams traded free-position goals in the opening minute, one for Butterick and one for Emi Bisson for a 1-1 score. But an unassisted goal by Tschider just 98 seconds into the game began a run of nine unanswered goal for Smith, giving the visitors a commanding 10-1 lead, with nine different Pioneers scoring in the quarter.
Mount Holyoke held Smith without a goal for a 10-minute stretch and closed the gap to seven with back-to-back goals in the second quarter. Dunn made it 10-2 with an aggressive drive at the 10:38 mark, and Mader scored on an 8-meter shot with 5:16 to go in the half to make it 10-3. Butterick and Sanders scored for Smith to return the lead to nine, but Millyan scored on a feed from Emi Bisson with 3:01 to go, making it a 12-4 Smith lead at the half.
Emi Bisson opened the second-half scoring with a free-position shot and goal, closing the gap to 12-5 with 13:08 left in the third quarter. But Smith reasserted control of the game with five straight goals to close out the quarter with a 17-5 lead.
Mount Holyoke outscored Smith 3-1 in the fourth quarter but couldn't cut the deficit back into single digits.
Sophomore Emma Tower (Dover, N.H.) made eight saves for Mount Holyoke, while Brooke Testa made seven saves for Smith.
Both teams will play NEWMAC games on the road this Saturday, with Mount Holyoke at Wheaton (1pm) and Smith at Coast Guard (12pm).
