CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Senior Gwen Flusche (Ridgewood, N.J.) finished with game highs of five goals, eight draw controls, four ground balls and three caused turnovers as top-seeded and 24th-ranked MIT defeated fourth-seeded Babson College, 17-5, in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament semifinal on Thursday night at Jack Berry Field.
Babson, which entered the night having won each of its last 17 NEWMAC semifinal contests, sees its season come to an end at 11-7. MIT, which has now won nine consecutive games, improves to 15-3 while advancing to the conference final for the fourth year in a row.
Senior
Tatum Sands (East Dorset, Vt.) scored twice and added one assist for three points, classmate
Lilly Bedard (Jupiter, Fla.) provided a goal and an assist, and first-years
Margaux Boneu (Portsmouth, R.I.) and
Jenna Wong (Walpole, Mass.) both tallied once for the Beavers. Sophomores
Mackenzie Cassler (Franklin, Mass.) and
Courtney Laden (Wilmette, Ill.) each contributed two caused turnovers and two draw controls, while first-year
Riley Burke (Ridgewood, N.J.) also forced two turnovers in the loss.
The trio of junior
Morgan McGahan (Ho Ho Kus, N.J.), junior
Valentina Erigoyen (Miami, Fla.) and first-year
Francesca Tamburini (North Bend, Wash.) combined to make five saves for Babson.
Senior Ashley Thomas (Summit, N.J.) led all players with seven points on two goals and five assists, sophomore Alexis Reinard (Nottingham, Pa.) produced two goals and three assists for five points, and senior Annica Lam (Livingston, N.J.) scored four times to pace the Engineers. Classmate Nina Petulla (Natick, Mass.) chipped in with two goals and five draw controls, first-year Mairin Andrerson (Concord, Mass.) also controlled five draws and junior goalkeeper Pauline Vien (Brookline, Mass.) finished with 10 saves in the win.
Vien made four first-quarter stops, including two in the opening 94 seconds of the contest, and Reinard, Flusche and Lam all scored to stake MIT to a 3-0 lead with a minute left in the first quarter. Petulla extended the margin to four 19 seconds into the second and Thomas converted a free-position chance at the 11:38 mark before the Green and White got on the board when Boneu put away a feed from junior
Jen Austin (Farmington, Conn.) 24 seconds later.
The Engineers got two goals from Flusche and another from Lam in the span of 1:36 to stretch their cushion to 8-1 with 7:26 left in the stanza, and Babson's next three possessions ended in turnovers before Lam made it 9-1 with her second goal of the night just 2:08 before halftime. Sands scored the first and last goals of the third quarter but Petulla, Flusche and Thomas buried free-position chances during a four-goal run to give MIT a 13-3 advantage going to the fourth.
The hosts answered a tally 49 seconds into the final period by Wong with another four-goal spurt before Bedard notched her 36th marker of the season in the final minute of the game.
The Beavers finished with a slim 14-13 edge in ground balls but were outshot 35-18 and won just five of 23 draw controls on the night. The Engineers also converted 6-of-9 free-position chances in their victory.
MIT will host second-seeded Coast Guard in the NEWMAC Tournament final on Saturday.
GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are now 40-9 all-time against MIT but have dropped three straight meetings in the all-time series, which includes a pair of conference tournament matchups.
• Babson, which had reached the last nine conference championship games, will not play in the NEWMAC final for the first time since 2015.
• Bedard finished the year ranked fourth in single-season history with 37 assists, and her 73 points are tied for 13th on the program's single-season list.
• Wong, who extended her goal streak to 12 outings, and Bedard both finished with at least one point in all 18 games this spring.
