Bates Women's lacrosse rolls to 21-5 victory at Wellesley

Katie Allard led Bates in scoring with a career-high four goals and two assists in Bates' 21-5 victory at Wellesley on Feb. 28, 2018. (File photo by Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)

WELLESLEY, Mass. -- Sophomore Liv Sandford and juniors Katie Allard and Sydney Howard all notched hat tricks and career-highs in scoring as the Bates women's lacrosse team rolled to a 21-5 non-conference victory at Wellesley College on Wednesday.

Sandford (Kennebunk, Maine) tallied four goals, tripling her career total, and added an assist, three ground balls, two draw controls and two caused turnovers for the Bobcats (2-0), who are averaging 20.0 goals per game in the young season.

Allard (Ridgewood, N.J.) led the Bobcats in points with four goals and two assists while Howard (Ashland, Mass.) scored three times, matching her career-high. Sophomore Issy Hnat (Ridgewood, N.J.) racked up a career-high three assists, senior Teal Otley (Cumberland, Maine) and first-year Summer Dias (Newton, Mass.) added two goals apiece, and sophomore Avery MacMullen (New Haven, Conn.) contributed a goal and two assists.

Wellesley junior Dacia Persky paced the host Blue (0-1) with three goals.

Bates junior Eliza Statile (Ipswich, Mass.) made five saves and allowed four goals in the first half; first-year goalie Rachael Deptula (Durham, N.H.) made her college debut in the second half, allowing one goal and making two saves.

Sandford opened the scoring at 28:59, scoring the first of back-to-back goals before Allard scored on a free position to make the score 3-0 Bates at 27:06. Dias scored twice in the run, while Hnat fed Howard for back-to-back scores. With 9:53 to go in the half, first-year Elsbeth Caulo (Amherst, N.H.) fed classmate Margaret Smith (Wilton, Conn.) for the 10-2 lead.

Persky got the Blue on the board with her first at 26:44, but Bates went on to score seven of the next eight goals to take a 10-2 lead with 9:53 left before the half.

Wellesley goals from Strobl and Persky made the score 10-4, but Bates first year Lila Hutchins (Westfield, N.J.) scored the final goal of the period to make the score 11-4 at the break.

Bates opened up the half with two quick goals at 29:40 and 28:50, by sophomore Isabelle Paulus (Bath, Maine) and Sandford, to extend the lead 13-4. Lena Engbretson scored the lone goal in the half for the Blue at 27:06 to cut the deficit to 13-5. But Bates netted eight unanswered goals over the final 26 minutes of the game to secure the 21-5 victory against Wellesley.

Bates had the advantage in shots, 37-16, draw controls, 18-9, and ground balls, 22-13, in the contest.
Goalkeeper Chloe Tucker suffered the loss for the Blue with 13 saves.

The Bobcats will play their home opener and conference opener this Saturday at noon against No. 4 nationally ranked Middlebury.

BOX SCORE http://athletics.bates.edu/sports/wlax/2017-18/boxscores/20180228_ad46.xml