Women's Lax Rolls to 18-8 Win Over Wheaton, McIntyre Nets 100th Goal

NORTON, Mass. – The Bridgewater State University women's lacrosse team scored the first six goals of the game en route to an 18-8 victory over Wheaton College on Sunday afternoon at Wheaton's Nordin Field.

The Bears improve to 2-0 on the young season with just their second win over the Lyons (0-1) since 2012. Wheaton holds a 36-8-1 advantage in the all-time series which dates back to 1978.

Senior Camryn Gonsalves (East Bridgewater, Mass.) notched five goals and four assist to lead the way for the Bears while graduate student Savannah Herrington (Kinnelon, N.J.) potted five goals for the second time in as many days. Gonsalves now has 91 goals and 60 assists in her four-year career.

Bridgewater also received three goals from senior Erin McIntyre (Tewksbury, Mass.), including the 100th of her career, as well as two goals and two assists from junior Meredith Sylvia (South Dartmouth, Mass.) and a pair of goals from graduate student Riley Bina (Abington, Mass.). McIntyre has 102 goals in four seasons with the Bears.

BSU freshman Lizzy Deacon (Amesbury, Mass.) contributed two points on the afternoon as she notched her first college goal and assist.

Senior Lara Finnie (Westfield, Mass.) paced Wheaton with three goals and a helper.

Herrington potted a pair of goals 11 seconds apart to open the scoring in the first quarter. Silvia, Bina and McIntyre also found the back of the net in the opening period with McIntyre converting her 100th collegiate marker with 47 seconds remaining in the session.

Gonsalves converted off the free position just 66 seconds into the second quarter to make it a 6-0 game before Finnie finally got the Lyons on the board with back-to-back strikes to cut the deficit to 6-2.

A pair of Herrington markers 40 seconds apart pushed the BSU advantage back to six.

Junior Sara Spielman (Norwalk, Conn.) capped off the first-half scoring with a free position goal to make it an 8-3 game at break.

The Lyons would cut the deficit to four on two separate occasions in the second half. Junior Jessica Chamberlin (Bow, N.H.) scored a player-advantage goal with 12:47 left to play in the fourth quarter to close the gap to 11-7.

Bridgewater, however, poured in seven goals over the final 12:16 of the period to pull away for the 18-8 victory. Six different Bears scored during the 7-1 run including two goals from Gonsalves and the first collegiate marker from Bina.

Bridgewater held a 45-22 shot advantage for the game as well as a decided 21-9 edge in draw controls. McIntyre led all players with seven draw controls while Sylvia corralled three draws.

The Bears collected 21 ground balls and went 15-for-17 on clear attempts. Sylvia finished with a game-best six ground balls and Bina checked in with four.

BSU freshman goalkeeper Sara Skaff (Lowell, Mass.) made six saves to record her second win of the season.

Three Wheaton netminders combined for 14 saves.

In upcoming action, the Bears travel to UMass Dartmouth on Wednesday afternoon for a 3:30 game with the Corsairs. The Lyons entertain the Corsairs on Saturday at one.

Notes: The Bears are off to a 2-0 start for the first time since the 2019 squad opened the season with three straight wins.