Box Score WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – The Williams College women's lacrosse team (1-1) evened its season record with a 13-7 win over RPI (1-1) on Farley-Lamb Field.
Sophomores Suzanna Penikis and Emma Tenbarge fueled the Eph attack. Penikis had a game high five goals and Tenbarge netted four goals and recorded one assist.
Williams never trailed in the contest.
The contest was scoreless the first seven and a half minutes until the Ephs' Suzanna Penikis scored from 18 yards out on a feed from Emma Tenbarge at 22:18 to give Williams a 1-0 lead. RPI goalie Aleena Milinski had stopped the first six shots on goal by Williams.
Williams doubled its lead to 2-0 at 15:55 when Caroline Hogan found Kara Wollmers with a pass as Wollmers was running down the middle of the offensive zone and 12 yards out from the goal. Wollmers fired a shot over Milinski's left shoulder.
At 12:37 RPI got on the scoreboard and cut the Eph lead in half, when Sophie Hager scored on a free position shot that started from 10 yards out directly in front of the goal.
Just over two minutes later the Ephs re-built their 2-goal lead when Caroline Hogan scored on a free position shot out to Milinski's right. Hogan sent the ball low to Milinski's left.
Kara Wollmers netted her second goal of the game, this time unassisted, when she came around the goal from Milinski's left and whipped a low shot into the goal, upping the Eph lead to three, 4-1.
RPI's second goal came on a free position tally by Becca DeRosa at 7:24 when she bounced in a shot past Eph goalie Ana Alvarenga's right foot from directly in front.
At 6:30 the Ephs responded to the RPI tally when Eliza Quigley converted off a pass from Louisa Ebby. Williams now held a 5-2 lead.
Off a ground ball pickup near midfield RPI's Sophie Hager out raced the Eph defense and fired a shot inside the left post at 4:32 to narrow the Eph lead to two at 5-3. It was Hager's second goal of the game.
An errant RPI pass about 30 yards out from the RPI goal was scooped up by the Ephs' Emma Tenbarge and she drove forward straight on goal and beat Milinski to the goalie's left side, giving Williams a 6-3 lead with 3:38 remaining in the first half.
The Tenbarge goal was the final tally of the first half and Williams took a 6-3 lead into the break.
In the first half RPI's Aleena Milinski recorded eight saves and allowed six goals, while Eph goalie Ana Alvarenga stopped four of seven RPI shots. Both teams had seven turnovers in the half and Williams collected
The Ephs' Suzanna Penikis opened the second half with two goals in the first 45 seconds. Penikis's first goal came off a misdirected pass that came to her on the left side of the goal and she quickly caught the ball and flipped it past Milinski. Her second tally was also an unassisted goal as she drove in on goal from Milinksi's right and scored up top. Williams now owned a five-goal advantage, 8-3.
RPI's fourth goal came from Erin Goodwin at 14:38. Liz Brady assisted, cutting the Eph lead to four at 8-4.
Suzanna Penikis notched her third unassisted tally of the half and the fourth goal of the game at 13:09 when she got in on Milinski's left side and scored on a quick shot as Williams re-established its five-goal margin, 9-4.
RPI's Abbey Salvan scored off a pass from Sophie Hager at 11:21 when Hager hit Salvan coming in on Alvarenga's right side after doing some hard work to free herself from an Eph defender to connect with Sullivan.
At 9:29 Emma Tenbarge raced across the goal front from right to left and received a pass from Jenna Chodos and side armed a shot into the goal to make the score 10-5 in favor of Williams.
With 6:33 left Suzanna Penikis netted her fourth goal of the half and fifth of the game when she converted on a free position opportunity directly in front of Wilinksi. Williams now was in possession of a 6-goal lead at 11-5.
Emma Tenbarge closed out the scoring for the Ephs with two unassisted goals, while RPI's two final tallies came from Nicole Zimmer who was assisted by Allie Claroni and an unassisted score from Abbey Salvon.
Eph head coach Chris Mason recorded her 300th career win at Williams this evening and her overall record is 300-162 in this her 33rd and final year. Comenting after the game Mason said,"I had forgotten all about the 300-win thing, becuase once the season begins I'm only focused on how we are playing and what we need to do to get better. Emma Tenbarge and Suzanna Penikis really keyed our attack today. Suzanna is a shooter and she was really on today."
"I thought our defense was better today and our ball handling too, but I would like us to play faster," noted Mason. "Ana Alvarenga had a strong game for us and the RPI goalie was tough in the beginning when she made several early saves in a row."
Abbey Salvon and Sophie Hager who both scored two goals led RPI's attack.
RPI goalie Aleena Milinski stopped 10 Ephs shots and allowed 13 goals, while Eph netminder Ana Alvarenga denied seven shots by the Engineers and allowed seven goals. Williams had 17 turnovers on the day and RPI turned the ball over 13 times and both teams gathered in 17 ground balls.
RPI will next play at home on Thursday at 4:00 p.m. when they will host Montclair State.
Next up for the Ephs is a NESCAC road contest on Saturday at Bowdoin that will start at 12:00 p.m.
