Sports

Lacrosse begins season with win

Three players reach five points in 16-3 blowout over Gordon

Laura M. Wacker ’13, Erica W. Little ’11, and Kathleen M. Kauffman ’12 each registered five points as the MIT Women’s Lacrosse team posted a 16-3 victory over Gordon College on Tuesday night in their first game of the 2011 campaign.

Wacker led all scorers with five goals, while Little tallied one goal and four assists. Kauffman recorded a hat-trick to go along with two assists as Kelly Duncan ’11 notched three goals, one assist, and three draw controls. Stephanie C. Leger ’11 tallied three groundballs, three draw controls, and two goals while Molly E. McShane ’13 chipped in three groundballs, two draw controls, and two goals. In 50 minutes of action in net, Allison E. Hamilos ’12 turned away two shots as Sarah E. Ritter ’14 closed out the game with one save.

MIT set the tone early by scoring five unanswered goals in the first 10 minutes and went on to hold a 9-0 advantage at halftime. Kauffman opened the scoring by connecting on a feed from Little just 1:38 into the game. Duncan followed with back-to-back goals, the second set up by Kaitlyn L. Nealon ’14, while Leger’s free-position strike proved to be the game-winning goal with 20:51 on the clock.

Exactly 25 seconds later, Little began a string of three consecutive points as she found Wacker for two goals and recorded an unassisted marker of her own. A solo effort by Kauffman extended the Engineers’ lead to 8-0, while Wacker completed the hat-trick with 10 seconds remaining in the frame.

A flurry of offensive activity kicked off the second half. Gordon ended the shutout 40 seconds into the period, while the Wacker-Little tandem answered with the duo’s third goal of the night 31 seconds later. MIT increased its margin on Leger’s unassisted blast, but the Fighting Scots then narrowed their deficit to 11-2.

McShane tacked on a free-position goal with 19:16 left to play, and the Engineers closed out the game with four straight goals as Kauffman earned the final three points on a goal and two assists.

MIT returns to action on Thursday, March 10 when it hosts Keene State College.