BABSON PARK, Mass.—Visiting WPI converted a pair of early penalty kicks and hung on to defeat Babson College, 3-1, in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women's soccer action on Wednesday afternoon at Hartwell-Rogers Field. 

Babson, which had its five-game unbeaten streak snapped, slips to 2-4-3 overall and 0-1-2 in conference play. WPI is now unbeaten over its last six outings and improves to 5-2-3 overall and 2-0-1 in the NEWMAC. 

Senior Elisa Diletizia (Canton, Mass.) had a goal and classmate Nora Ryan (Abington, Mass.) made two saves for the Beavers. 

Senior Madisyn Bagby (Aurora, Colo.), classmate Lottie McLeod (Newton, Mass.) and sophomore Maeve Steckley (Rochester, N.Y.) each provided a goal for the Engineers. Graduate student Lili Hellerman () made five saves in the victory. 

WPI opened the scoring in the fifth minute when Bagby converted a penalty kick after Steckley made a long run through the midfield and was dragged down by a Babson defender in the box. The Engineers doubled their advantage less than two and a half minutes later when the Beavers were whistled for a foul on the right edge of the box. McLeod stepped up and calmly buried the penalty kick for her second marker of the year. 

Diletizia, who hit the crossbar from distance midway through the first half cut deficit in half for the Green and White with her second goal of the season in the 53rd minute. She ran onto a thru ball by senior Laura Lukowicz (Coventry, R.I.), touched it past Hellerman and had her initial shot cleared off the line by McLeod before getting her foot on the loose ball and knocking it into the open net. 

Babson's best chance to equalize came in the 73rd minute when junior Meredith Greely (Ottawa Hills, Ohio) saw her shot from the middle of the box sail just over the crossbar. The Engineers put the game away in the 90th minute when Steckley tracked down a long ball over the top by Bagby and chipped it past a defender before beating Ryan with a low shot to her right for her fourth goal of the fall.  

The Beavers finished with a 16-10 edge in shots and attempted seven of the eight corner kicks in the match. 

Both teams return to action on Saturday as Babson travels to Wellesley at 1 p.m., while WPI hosts Smith at 12 p.m. 

GAME NOTES
•    The Beavers are now 16-12-5 all-time against WPI. 
•    Wednesday's loss snapped Babson's seven-game regular-season unbeaten streak against NEWMAC foes. 
•    The Green and White has trailed at halftime in each of its four losses this fall. 
•    The last time the Beavers conceded a pair of penalty kick goals in the same game came in a 2-1 loss to Springfield on October 12, 2022.