SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.— Juniors Erin Jayne (Merrimac, Mass.) and Courtney Kaskey (Winnetka, Ill.) combined for seven goals and three assists Sunday afternoon as Babson College defeated Skidmore College, 13-10, in the women's lacrosse season opener for both schools at Wachenheim Field.

Jayne finished with four goals and two assists and Kaskey tallied three goals, one assist and a team-high three draw controls as Babson begins the season at 1-0. Junior Claudia Dodge (Pelham, N.Y.), sophomore Genevieve Bushey (Lakeville, Conn.), and first-year Solana Fahey (North Andover, Mass.) all notched one goal and one assist, and sophomore Nicole Darveau (Sudbury, Mass.) and first-years Amelia Novitch (Dover, Mass.) and Kathryn Blake (Medfield, Mass.) scored once each.

Bushey also picked up five ground balls and senior Brooke Leveillee (Longmeadow, Mass.) picked up four, and Dodge recorded a team-high two caused turnovers. First-year goalie Kathleen Murphy (Scarborough, Maine) made six saves in goal to record the win in her collegiate debut.

Sophomore Gabriella Modesti (Syracuse, N.Y.) led the Thoroughbreds (0-1) with three goals and one assist and first-year Lily Schwartzman (Kennebunk, Maine) also scored three times. First-year Elizabeth Walsh (Longmeadow, Mass.) added two goals, first-year Camille Pontone (Reading, Mass.) and junior Amelia Bassett (Hopkinton, N.H.) scored once each, and sophomore Maeve McKinley (Norwell, Mass.) collected two assists.

McKinley and senior Claire Loos (Concord, Mass.) led the defense with two ground balls and two caused turnovers each. Sophomore Liv Kazanjian (Rockville, Md.) made nine saves in 57 minutes between the pipes and classmate Cate Spaulding (Greenwich, Conn.) made one save in three minutes of work.

Babson jumped out to a 3-1 lead just four minutes into the game on goals by Novitch, Bushey and Fahey. After Walsh and Schwartzman scored back-to-back goals for the hosts to tie the game, the Beavers regained their two-goal lead on goals by Jayne and Kaskey to close out the first quarter.

The teams managed just one goal each in the second quarter, Pontone for Skidmore with 8:31 on the clock and Jayne for Babson with 4:05 to play, as the Beavers took a 6-4 lead into the intermission.

Jayne scored the first goal of the third quarter to extend Babson's lead, but Bassett and Walsh went back-to-back to Skidmore to cut the margin to one goal at 7-6. The Beavers responded with three straight goals by Kaskey, Dodge and Darveau to push the lead up to 10-6 before Modesti put one in for the home team just before the buzzer to make it 10-7 after three.

Jayne and Blake gave Babson a five-goal cushion (12-7) to start the final frame, but Skidmore would not go quietly. Modesti scored two straight and Schwartzman added one with four minutes to play to cut the margin to 12-10, but Kaskey added an insurance goal with 37 seconds remaining to close out the scoring.

Babson had a narrow 29-26 advantage on shots and a 23-14 margin in ground balls. The Beavers were 14-of-21 on clears while the Thoroughbreds were 10-of-18 on clears.

The Green and White will play their next four games on home turf at MacDowell Field, beginning next Sunday, March 6, against Vassar, beginning at 2 p.m. Skidmore is home again on March 9 against Trinity College (Connecticut) at 6:30 p.m.

GAME NOTES
• Babson is 4-4 all-time against Skidmore in a series that dates back to 2000.
• The Beavers have won two straight against the Thoroughbreds after dropping the previous three.
• The Green and White won its season opener for the sixth time in the past seven years.