Salve Regina falls in season opener

NORTON, Mass. – The Wheaton College women's lacrosse team opened up its 2014 season with a 13-5 victory over Salve Regina University on Saturday evening in its first-ever game at Nordin Field.

Nordin Field is named after Diane C. Nordin '80, who provided the lead gift to fund the project. Nordin's gift will benefit several members of the Wheaton community including the field hockey, men's and women's lacrosse and men's and women's soccer programs, intramurals, club and recreational sports and other members of the surrounding community.

Sophomore Allie Bush (Kennebunk, Maine/Kennebunk), who can forever claim the honor of having scored the first-ever goal in program history on Nordin Field, paced the attack with two goals and three assists. Bush also pushed her career assists total to 35 just one game into her second season to surpass Tess Meyer '11 and Julia Coit '06 for eighth all-time.

Classmate Brooke Sabol (Landgrove, Vt./Burr & Burton Academy) recorded her third career hat-trick alongside a pair of helpers, three ground balls and four caused turnovers. Senior Leila Mills(Brunswick, Maine/Brunswick) had three goals and one assist, while sophomore Jenna Tewksbury (Concord, N.H./Concord) collected a pair of markers.

Junior Melanie Sharick (Amherst, Mass./Amherst), sophomore Madison Cohen (East Lyme, Conn./East Lyme) and senior Devon Soucier (Avon, Conn,/Northwest Catholic) rounded out the goal scoring for Wheaton with one apiece.

Defensively, sophomore Mia Cambi (Longmeadow, Mass./Longmeadow) matched Sabol and Salve Regina's Sarah Woods (East Lyme, Conn./East Lyme) for the game-high in caused turnovers with four each. Lyons' junior goalkeeper Katy Ananian (Belmont, Mass./Belmont) mad nine saves for her 23rd career win – third all-time in program history – and Seahawks' senior keeperJosephine O'Reilly (Middletown, R.I./Portsmouth Abbey) stopped ten shots.

Senior Grace Kelly (Auburn, N.Y./Skaneateles) found the back of the net twice for the visitors, while Woods, sophomore Erin Gerhard (Scituate, Mass./Scituate) and junior Mary-Ashley Donelan (Upton, Mass./Nipmuc Regional) all chipped in with one marker, respectively.

Bush opened the scoring on a beautiful feed from Soucier who found Bush wide open on the far left post after Soucier engaged Salve Regina's goalkeeper to come out near the top of her crease on a free position attempt.

After Bush recorded the first-ever goal in program history on Nordin Field at the 25:15 mark of the first half for Wheaton, both teams went goal-for-goal until Cohen and Soucier potted consecutive markers at 13:42 and 10:26 to give the Lyons a two-goal cushion (4-2).

Gerhard responded with her first of the season with 3:39 remaining in the opening stanza as the Seahawks were minus a student-athlete via a penalty. Mills closed out the half with a marker with 45-seconds left to play and the Lyons rattled off four-straight goals after the break to seal the victory.

Wheaton (1-0), who remains undefeated in the all-time series which dates back to 1997 with a 7-0 record, hosts Roger Williams on Tuesday, March 4 at 4 p.m. Salve Regina (0-1) welcomes Simmons College to its campus on Tuesday at 6 p.m.