M.I.T. Engineers Win Over Owls

Senior attack Ashley Thomas (Summit, N.J.) scored six goals and handed out three assists to lead M.I.T. as the Engineers women's lacrosse team defeated Westfield State 24-10 In the season opener for both teams at Alumni Field on Wednesday evening.

Westfield starts the season 0-1, while MIT is now 1-0.

Christina Roncarati (E. Longmeadow, Mass. / Pope Francis) scored four goals to lead Westfield State.

MIT opened the game with a 6-0 run, with five different goal scorers and a pair of tallies from Nina Petulla (Natick, Mass.).

Marena Morales (Tolland, Conn.) got the Owls on the board at the 6:58 mark of the first quarter, sprinting through the Engineers defense at the 6:58 mark of the first quarter.

The Engineers led 9-1 after the first quarter.

MIT briefly got the game into running clock time early in the second quarter, but Morales' free position shot at 8:19 of the second trimmed the lead back to 11-2.  Roncarati scored on a free position attempt on the ensuing possession, scoring her first goal as an Owl after coming in as graduate transfer from Division I St. Francis (Pa.).  Westfield rallied with four straight goals with first-year, Emily Heslin (Wrentham, Mass./King Phillip) cashing in on a transition pass from Morales to trim the lead to 11-5 with 3:33 left in the half.

MIT got a shorthanded goal from Thomas with 1:42 left in the second quarter to lead 12-5 at the half.

The Engineers started the second half with a 3-0 run, capped by Thomas rolling the crease from the left side and hooking in a shot to get the clock running with 11:17 left in the third quarter.

Westfield's Mollie Pacheco bounced in a free position shot with 8:53 to get back into clock-stop time, but the lead wavered around the 10-goal mark for the remainder of the game.

Izzy Conley (North Salem, N.Y.) made 17 saves for the Owls.   The 17 saves in a game tie for the third-best single game in school history.  Mollie Pacheco (Tolland, Conn.) netted three goals and Morales finished with two goals and two assists for Westfield.

Pauline Vein (Brookline, Mass./Dexter-Southfield) stopped two  shots for MIT and Ashton Flather (Ipswich, Mass.) made one save while playing the fourth quarter.

Annica Lam (Livingston, N.J.) added four goals and two assists for the Engineers, with Petulla scoring four with an assist.

First-year Mairin Anderson (Concord, Mass.) snared 16 draw controls to help spark the MIT offense.

MIT out-shot Westfield 44-15 and held a 26-9 edge in draw controls.

Westfield will be back in action at home on Saturday, March 7, hosting Johnson and Wales at 12 noon.  MIT will play at Union (NY) College on Saturday.