A pair of Northampton High School products stole the show as the Smith College women’s lacrosse team held off a second-half rally from Mount Holyoke for an 8-6 win, Wednesday in South Hadley.
Smith senior Emily Biggs (Florence) scored three goals in the first half to stake the Pioneers (9-7, 3-4 NEWMAC) to a 6-2 halftime lead.
However, Mount Holyoke freshman Abby Baldwin (Florence) scored two of her three goals in the first 20 minutes of the second half as the Lyons (7-8, 2-5) cut the deficit to one.
Reese Gittelman added two goals and two assists in the win for Smith, including the game-sealing goal with 2:41 left.
Amherst 10, Trinity 7 — The 11th-ranked Mammoths scored the final four goals over the last 12 minutes to rally past No. 16 Trinity at Pratt Field.
Becky Kendall scored her third goal to tie the game with 11:57 left and Rebecca Wistreich scored the eventual winner 90 seconds later for Amherst (11-4, 6-4 NESCAC).
Hannah Gustafson also tallied a hat trick for the Mammoths in the win.
UMass 16, Quinnipiac 9 — Eddy Hart and Ryan Lever both drove in three runs as the Minuteman bats stayed hot at Earl Lorden Field.
Luke Oliphant went 3-for-5 with three runs scored for the Minutemen, who have now recorded at least 10 hits in eight of their last 11 contests.
UMass (14-19) scored 15 of its runs in the first six innings while supporting freshman Daniel Livnat, who allowed eight hits and six runs in 6⅓ innings.
Rhode Island 4, UMass 3; UMass 2, Rhode Island 1 — Kristina Day lined a pinch-hit double down the left field line in the sixth inning to help the Minutewomen salvage a split on the road.
Kendra Allen drove in the Minutewomen’s only other run of the second game with a single in the second inning before the Rams erased it with a fourth-inning homer.
UMass (21-18, 9-3 Atlantic 10) dropped the opening contest after surrendering three runs in the first inning. The Minutewomen scored two runs in a sixth-inning rally and put the tying run on third base before Amy Smith flew out to left field to end the threat.
Williams 6, Smith 1; Williams 8, Smith 0 (6) — Smith was held to just four hits over 13 innings as it was swept by No. 3 Williams in a non-conference doubleheader on the road.
The Pioneers (7-27-1) scored their only run in the fourth inning of the first game on a solo blast from Rachael Newhall. The home run tied the game, but the Ephs scored twice in the bottom half of the inning to reclaim the lead.
Newhall also had Smith’s only hit in the second game on a two-out single in the sixth.
Amherst 21, Trinity 7 — The sixth-ranked Mammoths (13-2) had 14 different players score goals, led by three apiece from Jon Coffey, Ethan Kazmierski and Colin Minicus.
Evan Wolf dished out four assists as Amherst held a 46-19 advantage in shots on goal for the game.
UMass 4, La Salle 0 — The Minutewomen dominated in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament in Orlando, Florida by cruising to wins at the bottom three singles positions.
The third-seeded Minutewomen won the doubles point with a 6-0 win at No. 2 and a 6-1 win at the No. 3 position. UMass dropped just one game in singles at the fourth, fifth and sixth spots to clinch the victory and move on to face Richmond on Thursday.
Amherst 6, Tufts 3 — Seventh-ranked Amherst outlasted No. 8 Tufts with wins at the final two singles spots in the lineup.
The Mammoths won the top-two doubles matches and then the No. 1 and 2 singles matches, but held a 4-3 lead until Claire Evans finished off her match at No. 5 in straight sets and Camilla Trapness rallied from dropping the first set to win in three.