CLERMONT, FL - Williams women's lacrosse topped William Smith today 18-9. The Ephs improved to 2-2 on the season with the win, while William Smith fell to 1-1.
The Ephs were led by tri-captain Margie Fulton, who scored four goals and added an assist. Sam Weinstein and Rebecca McGovern scored three goals apiece – Weinstein added two assists –while Emily Jablonski, Kaitlin Ellis and Lilly Wellenbach all scored twice in the Ephs' victory.
Eph goalie Ali Piltch stopped seven Heron shots to earn her second win of the year.
"It was a great team effort today," said Fulton. "We looked and felt relaxed and were able to play our game. We were really finding each other on the field and ran hard for 60 minutes."
Williams took control of the game from the first draw, scoring only 21 seconds into the game when Weinstein received a pass from Fulton and flung it into the net for her sixth goal of the season. McGovern then added a goal of her own only nine seconds later after Wellenbach earned the draw control and found her open in front of the net. McGovern slid it past William Smiths' netminder for her fourth of the season.
Although William Smith scored the next goal, Williams kept the momentum, ripping off a run of five straight goals capped by another goal from McGovern off a feed from Wellenbach, making the score 7-1 with about 18 minutes to play. The teams traded goals for the remainder of the half – with Hobart pulling their starting goalie after the Ephs' tenth goal – and Williams found themselves up 13-7 entering the break.
The second half was much the same storyline. The Ephs four goals over the first 14 minutes of the half to put the game out of reach for the Herrons and eventually walked off the field with the 18-9 victory.
"I was very pleased with the game," Williams head coach Chris Mason said. "We came out strong and I really felt that we did sustain it for both halves. I didn't feel like there was any spell where there was a lack of focus and intensity... Some real good ball movement, some beauitful goals, tough defense, Ali did a great job in goal. We stayed very poised against a very tough team. There was no reaction to the calls by the ref. It was good, and there was good focus."
Both teams will remain in Florida for their upcoming games. Williams now prepares to face off with Union at 9 a.m. on Wednesday. William Smith retakes the field on Thursday against Amherst at 4 p.m.
"We want to try to build on this ... There's always things you can clean up ... We're going to try to keep everything going pretty much the way we did today, but we are going to look to just get that little bit better [against Union]."
