NORTON, Mass.—Sophomore Courtney Laden (Wilmette, Ill.) provided four first-half goals and senior Lilly Bedard (Jupiter, Fla.) and first-year Grace Rooney (Milton, Mass.) added three goals apiece to help visiting Babson College defeat Wheaton College, 13-9, in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women's lacrosse action on Wednesday night at Nordin Field. 

Babson, which has won three straight games, closes the regular season at 10-6 overall and 7-3 in conference play, and will be the fourth seed in the upcoming NEWMAC Tournament. Wheaton has dropped three of its last four contests to slip to 11-6 overall and 5-5 in league play and will be the sixth seed in the conference championship. 

Bedard added two assists for a game-high five points, Rooney, who finished with a season-high four points, had two caused turnovers and Laden, graduate student Livy Kehoe (Harvard, Mass.) and first-year Allie Collins (Sudbury, Mass.) all recorded three draw controls for the Beavers. Fellow rookie Jenna Wong (Walpole, Mass.) added two goals and two caused turnovers, while first-year Francesca Tamburini (North Bend, Wash.) finished with a season-high eight saves in the win. 

Junior Georgia Qua (Suffield, Conn.) scored four times and first-year Kaydie O'Neil (Sturbridge, Mass.) contributed a goal and two assists for three points to go along with two ground balls, two caused turnovers and two draw controls to lead the Lyons. Sophomore Alexis Antonellis (Old Lyme, Conn.) led all players with five draw controls to go along with a goal and an assist, and junior goalkeeper Jenna Langan (Lincoln, R.I.) stopped 11 shots in a losing effort. 

Langan made three early saves to help Wheaton hold a 2-1 lead late into the first quarter before the Green and White scored eight consecutive goals to seize control of the game. Laden tallied twice in 62 seconds around a marker by Bedard to give the Beavers a 4-2 edge with 2:41 to go in the first, and they both notched goals over the first five minutes of the second quarter to extend the margin to 6-2. 

Rooney scored her first goal of the night at the 7:02 mark, Bedard set up Austin's first marker just over a minute later and Wong capped the run with her first of the game as Babson pushed its advantage to 9-2 with 3:50 to go until halftime. Senior Natalie Bilodeau (Scarborough, Maine) scored with five seconds left in the second to stop the run and Qua and O'Neil each scored over the first nine-plus minutes of the third period to pull the Lyons within 10-5 at the 5:54 mark. 

Tamburini made her third save of the quarter just over two minutes later and Wong converted a feed from Rooney for her second goal of the night with 2:22 left in the stanza to make it 11-5. Qua cut the hosts' deficit to five just 28 into the fourth but Wheaton was unable to get any closer as it committed back-to-back turnovers and saw Tamburini deny senior Bridget McDwyer's (Lagrangeville, N.Y.) shot before Bedard scored to stretch the margin back to six with less than 10 minutes to play. 

The Green and White finished with the edge in shots (30-26), ground balls (14-9) and draw controls (13-11) while converting 17-of-18 clears. The Beavers also scored the only free-position goal of the night as the Lyons finished 0-for-2. 

Both teams will play NEWMAC quarterfinal games on Saturday as Babson hosts fifth-seeded Smith at 1 p.m., while Wheaton travels to third-seeded Springfield. 

GAME NOTES
•    The Beavers are now 31-16 all-time against Wheaton and have won 11 straight games in the series since 2016. 
•    Bedard has finished with at least four points in nine of the last 11 games and Wong extended her point streak to 16 games on Wednesday night. 
•    Babson is 8-0 this season and 49-1 over the last four years when scoring at least 12 goals. 
•    The Green and White has led after the first quarter in eight of its 10 victories this spring.