SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- The Mount Holyoke College lacrosse team scored seven unanswered goals in the second quarter to pull away from the University of Saint Joseph in a 16-7 season-opening victory Wednesday night.

The Lyons took a 2-0 lead early on but fell behind 3-2 after one quarter, as the visiting Blue Jays (1-1) scored three in a row.

First-year Juliana Spaulding (Wakefield, Mass.) scored an unassisted man-down goal to even the score at 3-3, and she then assisted junior Marielle Welch (Silver Spring, Md.) to give the Lyons the lead for good at 4-3. Junior Emi Bisson (Chester, Conn.) scored three of the Lyons' next five goals in Mount Holyoke's decisive run. The victory evened the teams' all-time series at 1-1, following an 11-5 loss at USJ a year ago in West Hartford, Conn.

"We came together," said senior captain Maddie Millyan (Winchester, Mass.), who finished with two goals and an assist. "We've had a lot of conversations on and off the field about playing our game, and that's working as a team and as a family, and making our teammates' successes our successes. We really honed in on that and if we saw something wasn't working, we adjusted and made it work. We're all just here to play and have fun."

The Blue Jays scored the last goal of the first half, and LeGault scored again shortly after the start of the second half to close the gap to 9-5.

But Mount Holyoke shut the door on a comeback, finishing out the quarter with five straight goals by five different Lyons. Millyan scored the first goal of the fourth quarter, opening up a 10-goal lead at 15-5. The Blue Jays stopped the running clock with a free-position goal by Picard, but Welch resumed it less than a minute later, with 7:20 remaining. LeGault halted the running clock the rest of the way with the game's final score, closing the deficit to nine.

Spaulding had four goals, three assists, six ground balls, four draw controls and three caused turnovers in a stellar collegiate debut. Bisson also scored four times, adding one assist, seven ground balls and two caused turnovers.

Welch scored two goals with one assist and junior Elle Mader (Cincinnati, Ohio) added two goals in the winning effort.

For USJ, Alana Picard, Reagan Buscetto, and Anna LeGault scored two goals apiece. Picard added seven draw controls and five ground balls.

First-year Valeria Bolanos (Newington, Conn.) made 11 saves in a winning collegiate debut in goal. Colleen Stringer made 18 saves for USJ.

Mount Holyoke hosts Nichols College on Saturday at 1pm. USJ will next play Eastern Connecticut State at home on Tuesday at 5pm.