BOSTON — Senior Lilly Bedard (Jupiter, Fla.), sophomore Courtney Laden (Wilmette, Ill.) and first-year Jenna Wong (Walpole, Mass.) all scored three goals and No. 17 Babson College raced out to an 8-0 lead after one quarter on the way to a 17-5 victory over Emerson College in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women's lacrosse action Wednesday evening at Rotch Field.

With the victory, Babson has won three of its last four to improve to 6-3 overall and 3-1 in the NEWMAC. Emerson dropped its seventh game in a row and slid to 4-7 overall and 0-4 in league play.

Bedard added three assists and three ground balls to her totals and Laden added three draw controls, three ground balls and two caused turnovers. Junior Jen Austin (Farmington, Conn.) contributed a goal and two assists, and Hailey Murray (Swarthmore, Pa.) scored twice, and 10 different players recorded goals for the Beavers. First-year Grace Rooney (Milton, Mass.) grabbed a team-high five draw controls and two ground balls, classmate Caroline Burtch (Norwell, Mass.) chipped in with two draw controls and two ground balls, and junior goalie Morgan McGahan (Ho Ho Kus, N.J.) stopped four of the five shots she faced in the victory.

Sophomore Laina Gustafson (Cross Plains, Wis.) scored two goals, classmate Laura Lovell (Norwalk, Conn.) and junior Ava DelliCompagni (Coatesville, Pa.) tallied a goal and two assists, and senior Holland Rutter (Pingree Grove, Ill.) added a goal for the Lions. DelliCompagni collected a team-high five draw controls, Gustafson and senior Samantha Bowen (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) each caused two turnovers, and senior goalie Ellie Spotts (Corona Del Mar, Calif.) made eight saves and scooped up seven ground balls in the setback.

The Beavers took control early on with four goals in the first four minutes. Bedard set up Rooney and Wong for goals in the first 61 seconds, Wong followed with her second goal before the game was three minutes old, and Bedard got on the scoreboard with 11:47 on the clock.

Burtch and Murray got into the act midway through the first quarter to make it 6-0. Wong scored her third of the game with a woman-up goal with four minutes remaining and Laden finished off the first frame with a goal with 1:01 to play as Babson took a comfortable 8-0 lead into the second.

Gromko extended the Babson lead two minutes into the second quarter before Emerson got on the scoreboard on a goal by Lovell with an assist from DelliCompagni. Bedard played a role in the next three goals by putting in one of her own with 10:45 remaining, setting up Laden for a goal with 9:11 on the clock and then converting a free-position goal with 5:30 to go in the period as the lead ballooned to 12-1. Hailey tacked on one more in the final minute as the Green and White enjoyed a 13-1 margin at the intermission.

After Austin opened the second-half scoring for the visitors, Emerson came alive with three consecutive goals on a pair from Gustafson surrounding one by DelliCompagni. Sophomore Lauren Caley (Beverly, Mass.) closed out the scoring with a goal to put Babson up 15-4 before Laden and first-year Ellie Schiller (Phoenix, Ariz.) found the back of the net in the final stanza.

Babson dominated the stat sheet with leads in shots (35-12), ground balls (31-20) and draw controls (15-9).

Both teams return to action with NEWMAC games on Saturday at 1 p.m. as Babson visits Springfield and Emerson host MIT.

GAME NOTES
• Babson has won 10 in a row over Emerson and is 10-1 all-time against the Lions in a series that dates back to 2014.
• The Green and White have won 30 of their last 31 NEWMAC regular season games going back to 2023 and are 39-3 in regular season conference games dating back to 2022.
• The Beaver defense held Emerson to its second lowest goal total this season.
• Laden has collected at least one ground ball and one draw control against all nine opponents this spring, and one caused turnover against seven of the nine.