Women’s Lacrosse Team Gets First Conference Win in Rally

The Wells College women's lacrosse team began North Eastern Athletic Conference play with a 9-7 victory over visiting St. Aloysius College on Friday, April 2.

The Express trailed three separate times before taking the team's first lead with about 10 minutes left in the first half. Despite being outshot by a 2-to-1 margin for the game, the Express defense held strong to compliment the offense.

Kayla Rowell (Cicero, N.Y.) gave Wells its first lead of the game after the junior scored a pair of goals in succession. She first tied the contest at 3-3 from a free position shot before making the score 4-3 after taking a feed from Mackenzie Powers (Syracuse, N.Y.). It was her third goal of the first half after scoring her first from Lydia Thomas (Colton, N.Y.).

The Express held onto the lead at 5-4 going into the break before Powers came out strong for Wells in the second half with a pair of goals to start the second and a 7-4 lead. Her first goal of the second came with a specialty team up goal. She finished the contest as the team's top point getter and top groundball getter with five in each category.

After the teams traded goals, Rowell netted her team-leading fourth tally of the day to provide some insurance with just under seven minutes remaining.

Clara Lima (Hastings Hudson, N.Y.) got the game winner with less than 13 minutes to go for the team's eighth goal and her third of the contest.

Lauren Spiegel (Ballston Lake, N.Y.) was outstanding in net with 21 saves on 28 shots on goal with 10 of those saves coming from free position opposition opportunities.

Overall, the Mounties held the shot edge at 42-22. Wells had the edge in groundballs at 27-15, while both teams took nine draw controls.

Following Powers in groundballs with four each was Isabella Ciancio (Clinton, N.Y.) and Anna Bernatavitz (Elmira, N.Y.). Mollie Walts (Cortland, N.Y.), Thomas and Lima all finished with three groundballs apiece. Ellie Beavers (Syracuse, N.Y.) and Spiegel each registered a pair of groundballs with Rowell scooping one on the day.

Wells College head coach Alyssa Long earned her first win at Wells, as well as her first conference win, as the team recorded season highs in groundballs and saves while tying team season highs in free position goals and shots.

The Express returns to conference action next weekend with a game at La Roche University on Saturday, April 10.