Box Score WELLESLEY, Mass. -- The Wellesley College lacrosse team held Smith College to just four goals in each half, cruising to a 21-8 victory over the Pioneers on Saturday afternoon. The win improves the Blue to 5-8 overall, 3-1 in NEWMAC play. Smith falls to 7-6 overall, 2-3 in the NEWMAC. Despite the loss, Smith clinched a berth in the NEWMAC tournament thanks to losses by Mount Holyoke and MIT on Saturday.

The game was close through the early going, with Wellesley holding a 4-3 advantage over Smith with 18:09 remaining in the first half. The Blue then seized the momentum, closing the half on a 7-1 scoring run. The Blue were paced by five first half goals from Brit Mscisz, while Smith's Mckenzie Hessel (Portland, Ore./Wilson) accounted for three of the Pioneer scores.

Wellesley struck for five unanswered goals to open the second half, building a 16-4 lead and putting the game mostly out of reach. Smith would score four of the game's next five goals, two from the stick of Meaghan Fileti (Palos Verdes Estates, Calif./Palos Verdes), which cut the lead to 17-8, but that was all the offense from the Pioneers in the half. Wellesley closed out the game with four straight scores, two from Meagan Fuchs, setting the final to 21-8.

The Blue outshot Smith 44-23, including allowing just eight Pioneer shots in the second half. Wellesley also held an edge in ground balls, 25-12, but Smith outdrew Wellesley, 18-13.

Both starting goalies played well. Tya Logan got the win for Wellesley, making 10 saves in 38 minutes of play, while Smith's Alina Pechacek (Andover, Mass./Phillips Academy) made 16 stops. Wellesley's Tori Hysko came on in relief, making two saves in 22 minutes of action.

Wellesley's offense was paced by five goals and an assist from Mscisz, while Meredith Roy added two goals and three assists for five points. Fuchs scored four times, Rachel Hanscom added three goals and Allison Robbins had a goal and two assists to round out the box score.

Defensively, Nathalie Gruet had four draw controls to lead the Blue, while Kayla Bolton had four caused turnovers and four ground balls in her final regular season home game for Wellesley.

Smith was led by four goals from Hessel and two each from Fileti and Becky Bracken (Barrington, R.I./Barrington). Hessel and Bracken each recorded five draw controls to lead the Pioneers, while Kate Detrick (Petaluma, Calif./Sonoma Academy) had two caused turnovers on defense.

Wellesley is back in action on Tuesday at 4:00pm traveling to Wheaton for a key NEWMAC contest. Smith wraps up the NEWMAC regular season on Tuesday, hosting Springfield at 5:00pm. 

(Release courtesy Wellesley Sports Information)