Athletics News and Press Releases

Lacrosse Upsets Wheaton In NEWMAC Championship; Advances to Semi-Finals

Northampton, MA: The sixth-seeded Pioneers upset number three Wheaton College yesterday in Norton, 10-7, avenging an earlier season loss and advancing to the semi-finals of the 2007 New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championship. The Pioneers, whose defeat of the Lyons was their first since 2000, improved to 5-9 overall while Wheaton finished the season 4-12.

     Wheaton's Merdith Hurd (Bath, ME) scored the first goal of the game just 21 seconds into play, but Smith evened the score as Rebecca Capute (Easton, MD) tallied at the 24:37 mark. Each team scored twice more in the next seven minutes but the Pioneers put together a four goal run to end the half with Sara Smyth (Brooklyn, NY) finding the net twice and Emily Riff (Wayzata, MN) and Michelle Walsh (Northampton, MA) each adding one.

   Smyth opened the second half with her third goal of the game to give the Pioneers an 8-3 advantage but the Lyons then rallied with three go close the gap to two. However, Riff responded with back-to-back goals to give Smith a 10-6 lead with 15 minutes left in regulation. The Pioneers' defense stepped up and allowed Wheaton just one more goal to close out the game. Junior keeper Sara Smith (Brooklyn, NY) made 12 saves for the Pioneers in the win while Kristin Konig (Montecito, CA) completed her career with 11 stops.

     The Pioneers will face Wellesley College on Saturday, April 28 at 2:30 pm at Babson College in the second semi-final of the day. The other semifinal at noon pits host Babson against Springfield.