NORTON, Mass. -- The Wheaton College (Mass.) women's lacrosse team was defeated by visiting Babson College, 20-4, this evening in a New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference contest at Nordin Field on the Wheaton campus in Norton, Mass. The Lyons fall to 8-4 overall and 3-2 in league play, while the Beavers win their third straight and five of their last six to improve to 8-5 and 4-1.

Babson scored at least three goals in every quarter, while holding Wheaton to exactly one goal in each period. The Beavers committed just eight turnovers, while forcing their host into 21 miscues and outshot the Lyons, 39-11. 

Sophomore attacker Avonlea LeBeau (North Branford, Conn.) paced the Wheaton offense with two goals on three shots and added three draw controls, while first year midfielder Lara Finnie (Westfield, Mass.) netted a goal and came up with a pair of draw controls. Junior defender Erin Ortega (Merrimack, N.H.) tallied her first collegiate goal and first year defender Talia Banglmaier (Kennebunk, Maine) picked up two ground balls and caused a turnover. Junior starting goalie Emily Oundjian (Longmeadow, Mass.) stopped nine of 26 shots in 49:32 of action, before yielding to classmate Emily Kelly (Norwell, Mass.), who turned away one of four attempts in the final 10:28 of action.

Sophomore attacker Nicole Darveau (Sudbury, Mass.) netted a career-high five goals and first year attacker Amelia Novitch (Dover, Mass.) scored four times to lead Babson. Darveau needed just six shots to score her five markers and added a pair of ground balls and a caused turnover. Junior attacker Erin Jayne (Merrimac, Mass.) matched her season-high with six points on two goals and a personal-best four assists to go with a caused turnover. Junior midfielder Courtney Kaskey (Winnetka, Ill.) tallied three goals and added an assist in addition to a draw control and a caused turnover. First year midfielder Clare Connolly (Hanover, Mass.) led all players with eight draw controls to go with a goal. First year goalie Kathleen Murphy (Scarborough, Maine) made four saves to earn the win for the Beavers.

Babson opened the game with three goals within the first five minutes and seven of the eight first quarter goals. Darveau, junior middie Claudia Dodge (Pelham, N.H.) and Novitch all found the back of the net to give the visitors a 3-0 lead at 10:20 of the first quarter. Finnie put the Lyons on the board at 3-1 with a score at the 8:04 mark. Novitch notched two of the final four Beaver goals of the period for a 7-1 advantage. 

LeBeau scored just 62 seconds into the second quarter to cut the deficit to 7-2 for Wheaton. Babson repeated its first-quarter feat by scoring the last four goals of the period, including two from Kaskey to take an 11-2 advantage into the intermission.

Kaskey netted the first goal of the third quarter with 10:40 left in the period for a 12-2 Beaver lead, before Ortega countered for the Lyons with eight minutes to go in the quarter to make it 12-3. Darveau netted the next two goals for Babson, including her 13th marker of the year with just three ticks left on the third-quarter clock.

The Beavers reeled off six unanswered goals from six different players to begin the fourth quarter and expand their lead to 20-3. LeBeau scored the final goal of the night with 66 seconds remaining in the contest to give Wheaton its fourth goal.

The Lyons return to play on Saturday, April 16 when they head to South Hadley, Mass. to take on NEWMAC rival Mount Holyoke College at 12:00 p.m., while Babson hosts league foe Wellesley College on the same day and time.