No. 19 Women's Lacrosse vs. St. Lawrence
Saturday, February 21 | 5 p.m.
Keiser Multi-Purpose Field| West Palm Beach, Fla.

WHAT TO KNOW
• After competing in the last three NCAA tournaments and winning two of the last three New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) championships, the Babson women's lacrosse team opens the 2026 season on Saturday in West Palm Beach, Fla.
• The Beavers, ranked 19th in the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) Division III preseason coaches poll, will take on St. Lawrence at 2:30 p.m. at Keiser University's Multi-Purpose Field.

SERIES HISTORY
• Saturday's game will be the first career meeting between Babson and St. Lawrence.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Babson (0-0) returns four starters and 16 players in all from a team that finished 15-4 overall and 10-0 in the NEWMAC last spring, played in its ninth straight conference title game, and won its first NCAA Tournament game for the third year in a row.
• Junior Claire Jones earned All-NEWMAC first team honors on defense with 15 caused turnovers and 21 ground balls, and finished second on the team with 31 draw controls. Classmate Lyndsey Newsome was a second team All-NEWMAC pick after starting all 19 games for a Babson defense that led the conference with 8.96 goals allowed per game, including just 6.35 goals in NEWMAC games. Sophomore Charleigh Newman started 12 of her 16 games on defense, causing 10 turnovers and scooping up 11 ground balls.
• Senior Lilly Bedard is the top returning attacker after recording 20 points on 11 goals and nine assists, and junior Mia Fierro tallied nine goals and three assists for 12 points.
• Junior Morgan McGahan appeared in goal in 12 games for the Beavers, recording an 8.09 goals against average with a .442 save percentage with 19 saves.

SCOUTING THE SAINTS
• St. Lawrence (0-0) is coming off a 2025 season that saw the Saints finish 7-10 overall and 5-5 in the Liberty League and suffer a 13-12 overtime loss to RIT in the first round of the Liberty League tournament.
• Junior Jessica LaPlaca led the Saints in scoring with 36 goals and 14 assists for 50 points and earned third team All-Conference honors. Sophomore Cate Rathnam was third on the team in scoring with 16 goals and five assists for 21 points, senior Caroline Hamilton contributed 14 goals and five assists for 19 points, and junior Phoebe Spaeth was good for 15 goals and three assists for 18 points.
• Junior Ruthie Haims was second on the team with 28 draw controls, and senior Kelsey O'Brien was second with 23 caused turnovers and 35 ground balls.
• Sophomore Zoe Froimovitz started 16 of the 17 games in goal and recorded a 10.22 goals against average with a .434 save percentage with 124 saves.

HEAD COACH MICHELLE SMITH
• Now in her 15th season, head coach Michelle Smith and her assistants Annika Streeter and Katherine McDonough have earned three NEWMAC Coach of the Year awards as well as the IWLCA regional coaching staff of the year in 2024.
• Smith has guided Babson to six NEWMAC regular season and five tournament championships while making six NCAA Tournament appearances, boasting a 150-83 career record.

POLL POSITION
• The three-time defending regular season champion Beavers received three of the 11 first-place votes and finished second in this year's NEWMAC preseason coaches' poll.
• Defending tournament champion MIT finished first with eight first-place votes. Springfield was third in the poll, and Coast Guard and Smith rounded out the top five.

BEAVER TRANSFERS
• The Beavers landed three transfers who will be on the roster for the 2026 campaign.
• Graduate students and twin sisters Bella Kehoe and Livy Kehoe join the Green and White from the University of Pennsylvania, where they both battled injuries the past few years. Bella appeared in 35 games in her career from 2022-24, scoring 20 goals along with four assists, while Livy saw action in just three games from 2022-24.
• Sophomore Courtney Laden was a midfielder for Delaware last spring but did not see any game action.

BEAVER BITES
• Bedard produced five multi-point games for the Beavers last season, including a career-high five points (3g, 2a) in a win over Mount Holyoke.
• Fierro had three-goal games in wins over Mount Holyoke and Emerson last season, including four point (3g, 1a) against Emerson.
• Jones collected multiple draw controls in eight games last season, including five in the NEWMAC championship game against MIT and four in the regular season game against MIT. She also had multiple caused turnovers and multiple ground balls six times each.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• Babson was 15-0 last season and is 41-1 over the last three seasons when scoring at least 15 goals.
• The Beavers have won their last 38 games over the past three seasons when holding their opponents to 10 goals or fewer.
• The Green and White have gone 28-0 over the past two seasons when leading at halftime.
• Babson was 12-1 last spring and 25-2 over the past two years when winning more draws than its opponents.

UP NEXT
• The Beavers will host Framingham State in their home opener on February 28 at MacDowell Field at 1 p.m.