No. 17 Women's Lacrosse at Springfield
Saturday, April 4 | 1:00 p.m.
Stagg Field | Springfield, Mass.

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 24-21 all-time against Springfield in the all-time series that dates back to 1997.
• The Beavers have won four in a row over the Pride and nine of the last 13 going back to 2017.
• The Green and White have captured just two of the last five games at Stagg Field since 2021.

LAST MEETING
• Amelia Novitch '25 tallied three goals and three assists as No. 14/16 Babson built a 16-5 lead and held off a comeback by Springfield for a 16-11 victory on April 19, 2025 at MacDowell Field.
• Michaela Downer '25 scored three goals, Ellie Hilsabeck M'25 added two goals and an assist, and Clare Connolly '25 contributed a pair of goals and 14 draw controls for the Beavers. Jessica Evans '25 and Kathryn Blake '25 also scored twice, Eileen Manning M'25 finished with two caused turnovers and two ground balls, and Kathleen Murphy '25 was impressive in goal with 14 saves in the victory.
• Senior Lily Johnson filled up the stat sheet with four goals, two assists, four draw controls, two caused turnovers and three ground balls for the Pride. Sophomore Claire Ognibene added four goals, junior Hailey Gaydos collected a team-high six draw controls, and Kate Laico M'25 made nine saves in the setback.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Babson (6-3, 3-1 NEWMAC), ranked 17th by USA Lacrosse Magazine, has won three of its last four games after roaring past Emerson on Wednesday evening, 17-5.
• Senior Lilly Bedard, sophomore Courtney Laden and first-year Jenna Wong all scored three goals and Babson raced out to an 8-0 lead after one quarter. Bedard added three assists and three ground balls and Laden added three draw controls, three ground balls and two caused turnovers. Junior Jen Austin contributed a goal and two assists, and Hailey Murray scored twice, and 10 different players recorded goals for the Beavers. First-year Grace Rooney grabbed a team-high five draw controls and two ground balls, classmate Caroline Burtch chipped in with two draw controls and two ground balls, and junior goalie Morgan McGahan stopped four of the five shots she faced in the victory.
• Bedard (18-20-38) is ranked fifth in the NEWMAC in assists and ninth in points, and Wong (19-2-21) leads the team in goals. Junior Jen Austin (7-9-16) is second on the team in assists and Murray (13-0-13) and Rooney (10-0-10) round out the top five in points. Sophomore Courtney Laden (30) and first-year Allie Collins (14) lead the team in draw controls, and Laden (17 CT, 19 GB) and junior Claire Jones (10 CT, 12 GB) are among the league leaders in caused turnovers.
• McGahan (8.17 GAA, .414 sv. pct., 41 saves) has started all nine games and is second in the NEWMAC in goals against average.

SCOUTING THE PRIDE
• Springfield (4-6, 2-2 NEWMAC) snapped a three-game losing skid with an 18-7 victory over Mount Holyoke on Wednesday evening in South Hadley.
• The Pride had a balanced attack with juniors Izzy Lalancette (4g) and 11 Olivia Zalinsky (2g, 2a) and sophomores Sophia Adams (3g, 1a) and Claire Ognibene (3g, 1a) all collecting four points in the victory. Senior Liz Neri (3g) and sophomore Payton Imhof (2g) added five goals, sophomore Molly Forest (7), Lalancette (4) and junior Hailey Gaydos (3) combined for 14 draw controls, Ognibene scooped up a team-high five ground balls, and sophomore Lindsay Hillemeir made two saves in the first 30 minutes in goal.
• Lalancette (27-3-30) is among the NEWMAC leaders in goals, Ognibene (15-4-19) is second on the team in scoring, and seniors Liz Neri (9-3-12) and Lily Johnson (6-6-12) are offensive threats as well. Senior Sarah Newton is second in the league with 57 draw controls.
• Gaydos (11) and Lalancette (10) are the team leaders in caused turnovers, Forest has accumulated 31 draw controls and a team-high 23 grounds balls, and Gaydos has totaled 20 DCs, a team-high 11 caused turnovers, and 19 GBs,
• Hillemeir (10.62 GAA, .403 sv. pct.) has started eight games in goal for the Pride, and sophomore Cedar Conrad (11.50 GAA, .315 sv. pct.) has gotten the starting nod in the other two.

BEDARD AND LADEN SWEEP NEWMAC WEEKLY AWARDS
• Bedard and Laden were recognized by the NEWMAC on Monday as the conference's Offensive and Defensive Athletes of the Week, respectively.
• Bedard produced seven goals and seven assists for 14 points in two games while Laden finished the week with 10 draw controls, five ground balls and three caused turnovers as Babson went 2-1 with a pair of league wins last week.

A LOOK AT THE STANDINGS
• Less than halfway through the NEWMAC slate, MIT (5-0) and Coast Guard (4-0) are the only two teams with unbeaten conference records while Smith (4-1) and Babson (3-1) have just one conference loss.
• Wheaton (3-2) is the only other team with a winning record while Springfield (2-2) is at the .500 mark.

SUCCESS IN THE NEWMAC 
• Babson has won 30 of its last 31 NEWMAC regular season games going back to 2023 and is 39-3 in regular season conference games dating back to 2022.
• The Beavers have finished in the top two in the NEWMAC regular season race in the last eight full seasons going back to 2016.

ROOKIE CLASS 
• The first-year class for the Beavers has made a strong impact on this year's team, with seven rookies seeing action in at least seven games and six starting at least two contests.
• Five first-years (Wong, Murray, Rooney, Boneu, and Schiller) have combined to score 46 goals and tally 48 points.
• Seven first-years (Collins, Burtch, Rooney, Wong, Grahn, Murray, and Burke) have totaled 36 draw controls, 24 caused turnovers and 44 ground balls.

CONSISTENT PLAY 
• Bedard has at least one point in all nine games this season and at least three points in seven of the nine.
• Wong has scored at least one goal in eight of her nine games this spring and has multi-point performances in five of the nine.
• 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.

BEAVER BITES
• Babson has scooped up more ground balls than the opponents in seven of nine outings this spring.
• The Green and White have outshot their opponents this season by a 238-174 count, including 173-126 in shots on goal.
• The Beaver defense is allowing just 8.11 goals per game, which ranks second in the NEWMAC.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• Babson is 4-0 this season and 45-1 over the last four seasons when scoring at least 12 goals.
• The Beavers are 5-0 this season and 30-2 going back to 2024 when winning more draws than its opponents.
• The Green and White are 4-0 this spring and have gone 32-0 over the past three seasons when leading at halftime.

UP NEXT
• The Beavers return home for a NEWMAC game against Clark on Wednesday at 4 p.m.