SPRINGFIELD, Mass.—Visiting Babson College recorded a season-high 17 caused turnovers but was unable to rally from an early deficit in a 15-10 loss to Springfield College in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women's lacrosse action on Saturday afternoon at Stagg Field.

Babson, which suffered its third straight loss, slips to 2-3 and starts 0-1 in league play, while Springfield snapped a two-game skid to improve to 3-2 overall and 1-0 in the NEWMAC.

Senior Sophia McCann (Duxbury, Mass.) scored a season-high three goals, junior Courtney Kaskey (Winnetka, Ill.) and first-year Amelia Novitch (Dover, Mass.) both tallied twice and junior Erin Jayne (Merrimac, Mass.) contributed three assists to go along with three caused turnovers for the Beavers. Senior Gwen Borning (East Falmouth, Mass.) led all players with five ground balls to go along with two caused turnovers, sophomore Kayleigh Hacker (Natick, Mass.) tied for game-high honors with three caused turnovers and first-year goalie Kathleen Murphy (Scarborough, Maine) stopped nine shots in the loss.

Senior Taylor Pichel (Hopkinton, Mass.) led all players with six goals, classmate Katie Martel (Hartland, Conn.) scored four times, senior Holly Rivers (Danbury, Conn.) added two goals and junior Arielle Johnson (Woodstock, Conn.) dished out a game-high four assists to lead the Pride. Sophomore Haley Moody (Wells, Maine) turned away a season-high 13 shots in the victory.

McCann scored a pair of goals just under four minutes apart midway through the first quarter but Pichel put away three goals and sophomore Maddie Roy (Wilbraham, Mass.) scored once and contributed an assist to help the hosts build a 5-2 advantage after 15 minutes. Martel notched her second goal of the game 2:08 into the second, Rivers sandwiched tallies around a Kaskey goal for Babson, and Pichel converted a feed from Johnson to extend the Springfield lead to 9-3 with 2:19 to go until halftime.

Novitch pulled the Beavers within 9-4 on her first goal of the afternoon midway through the third, but the Pride answered with three goals in just over two minutes to grab its biggest lead of the contest at 12-4 with 2:01 left in the quarter. Sophomore Genevieve Bushey (Lakeville, Conn.) buried a feed from Jayne to close the third and first-year Clare Connolly (Hanover, Mass.) scored 2:04 into the fourth to cut the Babson deficit to 12-6.

The teams traded goals over the next four and a half minutes before the Green and White got back-to-back tallies from sophomore Nicole Darveau (Sudbury, Mass.) and Kaskey to cut its deficit to 15-10 with 2:25 remaining. Connolly won the ensuing draw control but Moody stopped a free-position shot by Novitch and the rebound attempt by Kaskey to halt the Babson comeback bid.

Babson returns to action next Saturday when it travels to MIT at 12 p.m., while Springfield hosts Trinity on Thursday at 4 p.m.

GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are now 20-20 all-time against Springfield.
• Babson, which entered the day ranked sixth in Division III converting over 70 percent of its free-position chances, scored just once in six tries against the Pride.
• The Beavers' 17 caused turnovers are their most since February 29, 2020, when they finished with 18 in a 14-5 win over Plymouth State.
• Saturday's loss is just Babson's sixth over the last 46 games against NEWMAC opponents going back to 2016.