Fast Start Helps No. 8 Field Hockey Knock Off No. 20 Wellesley, 4-1

WELLESLEY, Mass.—Junior Elise Towers (Cicero, N.Y.) scored once in each half to help eighth-ranked Babson College defeat 20th-ranked Wellesley College, 4-1, in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) field hockey action on Tuesday afternoon.

With its sixth consecutive win, Babson is now 11-1 overall and 4-0 in conference play, while Wellesley has dropped three straight games to fall to 5-5 overall and 2-2 in the NEWMAC.

Senior Staci Swallow (South Portland, Mass.) and sophomore Ashley Tango (Reading, Mass.) each scored once for the Beavers, who got assists from senior Victoria Spofford (Merrimac, Mass.) and junior Jacki Merrigan (Canton, Mass.). First-year Deirdre Barry (Longmeadow, Mass.) finished with one save in the win.

Senior Nikki Sharkin (Summit, N.J.) converted a feed from classmate Courtney Peterson (Glastonbury, Conn.) late in the second half for the Blue's lone goal. Sophomore Maggie Connelly (Duxbury, Mass.) made five first-half saves, while sophomore Lucy Hurlock (Needham, Mass.) turned away four shots in the second half for the hosts.

The Green and White dominated a first half that saw it outshoot Wellesley 10-0 and score three times in the opening 18 minutes to take control of the match. Tango notched her 12th goal of the year just 2:58 into the contest off a penalty corner and Towers scored the first of her two markers off a feed from Spofford to make it 2-0 at the 7:22 mark.

Swallow notched her sixth tally of the year for a three-goal lead in the 18th minute and the Beavers narrowly missed a chance to push their lead to four two minutes later when Towers' shot was cleared off the line by Blue junior Fallon Oeser (Brookfield, Conn.).

Towers would score her league-leading 14th goal of the year with 19:56 to go in the game before Sharkin broke up Babson's shutout bid with her fourth tally of the year at the 62:44 mark.

The Beavers finished with a 15-3 edge in shots and a 6-2 advantage in penalty corners.

Both teams return to action on Saturday as Babson travels to Smith at 12 p.m., while Wellesley visits WPI for a 10 a.m. start.

GAME NOTES
•    The Beavers are now 14-28-2 all-time against the Blue and have won two straight in the series against Wellesley.
•    Despite falling just over seven minutes short of a school-record sixth consecutive shutout, Babson set a new program record of 419:33 between goals going back to its September 13 loss against Tufts.
•    With two more goals, Towers extended her points streak to 12 games and has at least one tally in 11 matches this fall.
•    Babson has scored three or more goals in nine of its 11 wins had has won 25 straight games when putting up at least three markers.