VESTAL, N.Y. - Binghamton women's lacrosse cruised to a 17-9 win over Colgate in front of nearly 350 fans at the Bearcats Sports Complex on Wednesday afternoon. Binghamton set a new program record with 11 assists in the game and Kenna Newman set a new BU single-game record with six assists, a record that was held by Lauren Wetherell since 2006. The Bearcats also set a new team record with 11 assists in a single game. The previous total had been 10 assists and that feat was achieved three different times. Isabella Meli tallied a career-high five goals. Marisa Tancredi added four goals and Hayley Weltner had three goals, five draw controls, and three ground balls. Abigail Carroll had two goals, three assists, and four draw controls. Kristen Scheidel also had a game-high five draw controls. Emily Manning made seven saves for her third win of the season. Angelina Suau added to her league leading ground balls total with three, which tied multiple players for a game-high.
"I think it just came down to execution on both sides of the ball," said head coach Stephanie Allen. "On the offense end, we made sure we converted on shots tonight. We had much better attention to detail. We had a couple of players have career days. I'm incredibly proud of Bella (Meli) and Marisa (Tancredi) and their outstanding performances. I thought Kenna (Newman) did a great job of keeping her head up," said head coach Stephanie Allen. "She started to get those early slides to her in double teams. Being able to come up with six assists is a really selfless effort by Kenna."
After nearly five scoreless minutes to begin the game, Colgate scored the opening goal, but Binghamton answered back a few minutes later on Meli's ninth goal of the season, which tied the game at 1-1 with 7:54 left in the opening period. Weltner scored just 43 seconds later to give the Bearcats a 2-1 lead with her sixth goal of the season. After Colgate tied the game at 2-2 with 5:23 left in the period, Meli put the Bearcats back in front with 13 seconds left giving Binghamton a 3-2 lead at the end of the first period.
Meli completed the hat trick just 49 seconds into the second period, which gave Binghamton a 4-2 lead. Colgate would battle back over the next eight minutes and tie the game at 4-4 with 5:49 left in the opening half. Although, the Bearcats gained complete control for the rest of the half with five unanswered goals. Tancredi scored two goals nearly a minute apart to put Binghamton back in front, 6-4. Olivia Muscolino scored her 11th goal of the season to increase the lead to three with 2:18 left in the half. Tancredi recored her hatrick by scoring two more goals in the final minute, including one with nine seconds left to put Binghamton ahead, 9-4.
In the third period, Binghamton outscored Colgate, 5-1. The Bearcats received two early goals in the quarter from Welter, giving her a hat trick. Carroll scored two consecutive goals in the period, which put her season total to a team-high 15 goals. With 1:54 left in the third, Meli scored her fourth goal putting Binghamton ahead 14-5. At the beginning of the fourth period, Emma Conroy found the back of the net with her fourth goal of the season with 14:14 left in the game. In the final 13 minutes, Meli scored her fifth goal of the game and Madison Murphy registered her sixth goal of the season.
The Bearcats travel to Marist on Saturday, March 11 at 1 p.m.
