Springfield, Mass. - March 4, 2026 - The Springfield College women's lacrosse team defeated Western New England on Stagg Field on Wednesday night, 15-5, after a dominant performance that saw goals from ten different student-athletes.
With the win, Springfield improves to 1-1 as Western New England drops to 0-3.
Olivia Zalinsky (Bethany, Conn.) led the Pride with four goals as Elyse Altland (North Bennington,Vt.) and Izzy Lalancette (Feeding Hills, Mass.) each tallied two. Hailey Gaydos (Newington, Conn.), Claire Ognibene (New Canaan,Conn.), Kaelynn Stringer (East Greenbush, N.Y.), Molly Forrest (Wakefield, Mass.), Sarah Newton (Colchester, Conn.), Sara Horton (Hudson, Mass.) and Mianna Calabrese (East Longmeadow, Mass.) each had one goal apiece.
Newton had 11 draw controls as Altland and Forrest each picked up three ground balls while Altland also had three caused turnovers. Lindsay Hillemeir (Unionville, Conn.) got her first win of the season as she had one save on the night.
The game was scoreless for almost ten minutes before Western New England put one on the board as Zalinsky answered three minutes later, scoring on a free position shot.
The Pride exploded for eight goals in the second quarter as Lily Johnson (Oceanside, N.Y.) found Lalancette who scored a man-up goal at 13:23, before the Golden Bears scored less than two minutes later to tie it up at two.
Springfield then scored four consecutive goals all within less than three minutes of each other. A goal from Stringer assisted by Johnson started the run as Zalinsky, Horton and Altland followed.
Western New England then scored a man-up goal at 7:09 before Lalancette, Gaydos and Zalinsky added goals to close out the quarter as the Pride led 9-3 going into the halftime break.
In the third, Lyndsey Bunnell scored for Western New England after picking up a ground ball and firing it into the back of the net to make it 9-4, but Springfield showed its dominance the rest of the third and fourth quarters, scoring six more goals.
Ognibene scored on a free-position shot and Altland added her second goal of the game in third before Ognibene then passed the ball off to Newton who tallied another goal for Springfield to start off the fourth quarter. Zalinsky found the back of the net for her fourth goal of the game less than 45 seconds later before another Western New England goal at 8:19 made it 13-5. Horton found Forrest and then Calabrese scored at the end of the fourth quarter to give the pride a 15-5 win.
Springfield held the edge in shots (40-12), ground balls (22-11) and draw controls (18-3) while going 13-for-15 on the clear.
The Pride head to Endicott on Saturday for a 12:00 pm start.
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