Springfield, Mass. – April 22, 2023 – The Springfield College women's lacrosse team fell to Wheaton College, 14-12, in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) contest on Saturday afternoon on Stagg Field.

Springfield, which came into today's game with a spot in the initial NCAA Division III Region III regional rankings, fell to 9-7 overall and to 5-3 in conference play, while Wheaton moved to 9-7 on the year and to 4-4 in the league standings.

Jade O'Connor (Baltimore, Md.) led the Springfield offense with five goals and three assists for eight points, while Sarah Newton (Colchester, Conn.) added a hat trick for the Pride, her third of the season. O'Connor's posted five goals for the fifth time this year. Avonlea LeBeau led Wheaton with four goals and two assists.

Defensively, Gianna Scialdone (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) led the Pride with four caused turnovers and four ground balls in the effort in addition to her five draw controls today.
 
Both teams traded goals to open the game and a strike by Isabella Mazzi (Niantic, Conn.) off a feed from Sarah Newton gave Springfield a 3-2 edge after one. Back-to-back goals by O'Connor early in the second pushed the Pride's lead to three (5-2) before Wheaton came back with three of the final four goals of the stanza in a stretch of three minutes cutting its deficit to one and making the score 7-6 in favor of Springfield at the break.

The Lyons outscored the Pride by a 6-4 margin in the third quarter and took their first lead of the game at 11-10 with 4:32 to play. Hannah Hibbert (Center Harbor, N.H.) finished a pass from O'Connor, but Wheaton regained the lead 12-11 before the third quarter was over.

Two goals in a span of 30 seconds in the fourth by Wheaton's Erin Ortega was the difference as the Lyons went up by three and took the game by a 14-12 final.

Springfield led statistically in shots (43-19), ground balls (20-11) and draw controls (17-13) and went 18-for-23 on clearing attempts. Wheaton keeper Emily Oundjian (5-6) made 19 saves for the Lyons.
 
Springfield will wrap up the regular season on Wednesday, April 26 with a home NEWMAC contest against Coast Guard at 6:00 pm.

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