Women’s lacrosse wins against Wellesley College
MIT Engineers take the victory against Wellesley in tight game with a final score of 18-13
Holding a one-goal advantage midway through the second half, MIT’s Stephanie C. Leger ’11 won the first of four straight draw controls, helping spark a 5-1 run that secured an 18-13 victory over Wellesley College in a NEWMAC women’s lacrosse game on Tuesday afternoon. Leger finished with a game-high 11 draw controls, just one shy of tying the Institute record, and also posed two of her three goals during the late spurt.
Katie M. Kauffman ’12 became the 12th player in MIT history to register 100 career points, with two assists. Laura M. Wacker ’13 led the attack with six goals as Erica W. Little ’11 notched four goals and two assists. Kelly Duncan ’11 totaled three goals and an assist while Kaitlyn L. Nealon ’14 chipped in two goals. Alexandra A. Wright ’11 tallied four groundballs, three draw controls, and two caused turnovers as Sarah E. Ritter ’14 collected seven saves.
MIT opened the game with three straight goals before the visitors got on the board at the 20:26 mark. Nealon won the ensuing draw and sprinted right to the next for her second marker of the frame. Wellesley countered with three consecutive goals to even the contest at four midway through the frame.
Each side found the back of the net during the next minute, but the Engineers increased their margin to 7-5 with back-to-back goals. The Blue responded with another three-goal spurt to close out the half — the last coming as time expired — and claimed an 8-7 edge at the intermission.
Despite the momentum shift late in the first half, the Engineers kicked off the second stanza with Leger winning the draw and scoring 12 seconds in. A pair of goals from Wacker sandwiched a solo strike by Duncan, giving MIT a lead it would not relinquish.
Wellesley wasted little time in trimming its deficit to one (11-10). The Engineers replied with goals from Little and Wacker less than a minute apart to gain some breathing room. However, the Blue closed the gap to one (13-12) and forced MIT to use a timeout with 14:38 on the clock.
Following the break, Leger won the draw control and later connected on a pass from Duncan to ignite a four-goal run. Wellesley added one more goal with 3:59 left to play, but the Blue would get no closer as Wacker capped the scoring with under two minutes remaining.
MIT will host Springfield College in its final regular season home game on Saturday.