BABSON PARK, Mass.— Sophomore Estelle Gromko (Ipswich, Mass.) scored the go-ahead goal with 31.1 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and No. 19/14 Babson College came back from a 5-0 first-quarter deficit to defeat Skidmore College, 9-8, in non-conference women's lacrosse action Tuesday afternoon at MacDowell Field.

Babson, ranked 19th by the IWLCA and 14th by USA Lacrosse Magazine, won its third straight game to improve to 3-0 on the season while Skidmore dropped its second game to a ranked team in the past week and fell to 4-2 overall.

Senior Lilly Bedard (Jupiter, Fla.) led the Beavers with three goals and an assist, graduate student Bella Kehoe (Harvard, Mass.) and junior Jen Austin (Farmington, Conn.) notched two goals apiece, and Gromko and first-year Jenna Wong (Walpole, Mass.) added one goal each for the Beavers. Sophomore Courtney Laden (Wilmette, Ill.) collected six draw controls, three ground balls and two caused turnovers, sophomore Mackenzie Cassler scooped up a team-high four ground balls, and grad student Livy Kehoe (Harvard, Mass.) finished with three caused turnovers and two ground balls. Junior Morgan McGahan (Ho Ho Kus, N.J.) made five saves in goal in the victory.

First-year Piper Morgan (Winhall, Vt.) scored three goals to lead the Thoroughbreds, senior Julia Cafasso (Manhasset, N.Y.) added two goals, and classmates Lily Hudner (Concord, Mass.) and Allison Brewer (Bay Shore, N.Y.) and junior Charlotte Taylor (Cumberland, Maine) chipped in with one goal apiece. First-year Nora Bradley (Norwich, Vt.) grabbed a team-high three draw controls, senior Brooke LaVallee (Longmeadow, Mass.) caused three turnovers, and fellow senior Amanda Gardner (Newton, Mass.) picked up three ground balls. Sophomore Tatum Walsh (Mt. Kisco, N.Y.) made seven saves in goal in the setback.

The first quarter belonged to the visitors, who erupted with five unanswered goals to start the game. Cafasso opened the scoring six minutes in, Morgan and Brewer fired in player-up goals two minutes apart, and Morgan rattled off two more to give the Thoroughbreds a 5-0 lead with 3:26 remaining in the opening frame. Junior Phoebe Ross (Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass.) had a pair of assists in the period for Skidmore.

The Beavers turned the tables in the second quarter, potting five unanswered goals to tie the score. Wong stopped the bleeding with her team-high 10th goal of the season a minute into the period, Bella Kehoe followed with a player-up goal a little more than a minute later, and Austin tallied back-to-back goals to slice the deficit to 5-4 with 7:41 to go before halftime. Bedard put in her first goal to tie the score with 6:19 on the clock, but Taylor broke the streak with a goal for Skidmore with 1:46 to play to give the visitors a 6-5 lead at the intermission.

Bedard tied the score with her second of the game early in the third quarter but Cafasso answered a minute later as Skidmore regained the lead, 7-6. The defenses tightened and Bella Kehoe scored the only goal of the last 10 minutes of the  third quarter with 6:14 remaining, sending the teams into the final frame tied at 7-7.

Bedard gave the Beavers the lead with her third goal of the game with 8:53 on the clock, but Hudner answered with a player-up goal for the Thoroughbreds with 5:07 to play to deadlock the score at 8-8. Skidmore was issued a green card with 49 seconds on the clock and Gromko capitalized, firing a shot past Walsh for what would turn out to be the game-winning goal.

The host Beavers finished with a 29-18 advantage in total shots and a 14-9 margin in shots on goal. The Green and White also had a 21-13 advantage in ground balls and had a slim edge in draw controls, 10-9.

Babson hits the road to open NEWMAC play at Coast Guard on Saturday at 12 p.m. Skidmore opens Liberty League play on Saturday at William Smith at 11 a.m.

GAME NOTES
• Babson is 5-5 all-time against Skidmore in a series that dates back to 2003, and five of the 10 games have been decided by a single goal. 
• Two of Babson's three wins this season have been by just one or two goals.
• Babson won its second straight game when scoring less than 10 goals, and has won 66 of its last 67 games when allowing 10 goals or fewer. 
• The Green and White won for just the sixth time in 24 games since 2022 when trailing at halftime.
• The Beavers have captured 13 consecutive regular season victories at MacDowell Field dating back nearly two years to March 23, 2024.