Pioneers Dominate in 5-0 Win Over Western New England

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. - Emily Biggs (Florence, MA/Northampton)' goal 1:24 into the game helped propel the Smith College field hockey team to a 5-0 victory over Western New England on Thursday evening.

With the win, the Pioneers improve to 6-5 on the year while the Golden Bears see its record dip to 5-6.

Smith now leads the all-time series 11-5 and have outscored Western New England 19-1 in the last three meetings.

It didn't take long for Smith to get on the scoreboard, as Biggs tipped in a drive from Beatrice
Chaudoin (Millersville, MD/Severna Park) to notch her first goal of season at the 1:24 mark to put the Pioneers ahead 1-0.

Just 5:03 later, Julia Hamilton (Williamstown, Mass./Deerfield Academy) collected a pass from Mariah Ollive (Milton, Vt./Milton) to notch her fourth tally of the year and give the home team a 2-0 lead.

After playing a majority of the first half in the Golden Bears' side of the field, WNE drew a pair of corners but the Pioneers defense defused any threat of a score.

Caroline Labriola (Westbrook, Conn./Westbrook) gave her team a comfortable 3-0 lead as she was on the receiving end of an Elsie Odhiambo (Oyugis, Kenya/Kisumu Girls School) helper.

A defensive save by Kaitlin Labbe denied Kat Estes (Falmouth, Mass./Falmouth) her second goal of the season with just over two minutes to go in the half as the Pioneers entered the break with a 3-0 lead.

In the scond stanza, Bayleigh Bogan (Encinitas, CA/La Costa Canyon) officially put the contest out of reach when she fired home a pass from Casey Rau (Pottstown, Pa./Owen J. Roberts) in the 54th minute.

Bogan tallied her second marker of the game and fourth goal of the season on a rocket off the insertion pass from Kat Estes (Falmouth, Mass./Falmouth).

Smith's Cameo Tietje (Massapequa, N.Y./Massapequa) earned the win making one save in 53:47 of action while Maddi Wyda (Baltimore, Md./The Park School) played the final 16:13 of the game and did not face a shot. Western New England's Grace Trupe made seven stops in the loss.

The Smith attack dominated the stat sheet as it held a 13-1 advantage in shots on goal and took nine more (11-to-2) penalty corners than the Golden Bears. Corners proved to be key for Smith as the home team found the back of the net on three of their penalty corner opportunities.

The Pioneers will return to action on Saturday, October 10 when they travel to No. 13 Babson at 12:00 p.m.