NORTON, Mass. -- Junior attacker Lara Finnie (Westfield, Mass.) netted five goals, including the 100th of her career and senior midfielder Avonlea LeBeau (North Branford, Conn.) tied her career best with six goals to lead the Wheaton College (Mass.) women's lacrosse team over visiting Emerson College, 19-9, this evening in New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference play at Nordin Field on the Wheaton campus in Norton, Mass.

The Lyons improve to 5-4 overall and 2-0 in league play, while the Lions fall to 3-4 and 0-2.

The shot disparity between the two teams was not pronounced at all with Wheaton holding a 36-30 advantage, but Emerson did commit 25 turnovers compared to 17 for the home team. The Lyons had no trouble advancing up and down the field, converting all 22 clearing attempts, while the Lions struggled converting just one of five clear attempts in the opening quarter and 15 of 25 for the match. Wheaton also proved to be more active picking up loose balls with a 36-20 ground ball margin.

The Lyons created the scoring difference in the first and fourth quarters, outscoring their guests, 7-2, in the first period and ended the contest with a 6-3 advantage in the final quarter of play.

Finnie added two ground balls to her scoring total and LeBeau picked up an assist to match her career high with seven points in addition to coming up with nine draw controls, a pair of ground balls and a caused turnover. The Wheaton pair weren't the only ones wearing the home colors to notch career-best numbers. Sophomore attacker Riley Kilbourn (Madison, Conn.) tallied a personal-high of six points on three goals and three assist to go with two ground balls, while classmate Jessica Chamberlin (Bow, N.H.) racked up a career-high five assists to tie for the sixth-highest game total in school history. While the Lyons' offensive players were enjoying career nights, senior defender Ailise Cannon (Kensington, N.H.) was putting up lifetime numbers as well with seven ground balls and seven caused turnovers to go with a draw control. Sophomore starting goalie Katie Geis (Duxbury, Mass.) turned away six of 11 shots, while playing the first and fourth quarters. First year Makenna Gilman (Middletown, R.I.) denied four of six shots in the second period and classmate Jenna Langan (Lincoln, R.I.) stopped two of four shots in the third quarter. 

Sophomore midfielder Ava Selby (Boonsboro, Md.) netted a hat trick to lead Emerson and won eight draw controls, while senior midfielder Maddy Reyes (San Ramon, Calif.) and junior attacker Callie Krosin (Pikesville, Md.) each tallied three points on two goals and an assist. Reyes also notched three ground balls and caused a turnover. First year midfielder Ava DelliCompagni (Coatesville, Pa.) caused three turnovers, picked up three ground balls and added a pair of goals for the Lions. Sophomore keeper Ellie Spotts (Corona Del Mar, Calif.) made nine saves.

Selby found the back of the net just 32 seconds into the contest to give Emerson its only lead at 1-0, before Wheaton scored three unanswered markers, including a pair from LeBeau, to take a 3-1 margin with 11:20 left in the opening quarter. 

Selby scored again for the visitors to cut the deficit to 3-2 at the 10:40 mark of the quarter, but the Lyons closed out the quarter with four straight goals, including two more from LeBeau. First year attacker Mieke Buterbaugh (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) tallied the first goal of the second quarter to give Wheaton an 8-2 lead with 68 seconds gone in the quarter.

The Lions answered with consecutive goals for the first time in the game with both coming from Krosin in a span of 40 seconds to pull Emerson within 8-4 with 6:38 remaining in the quarter.

The Lyons countered with two goals of their own, including a score from first year Georgia Qua (Suffield, Conn.), coming with a player down due to penalty. The score gave Wheaton a 10-4 cushion with just 49 ticks left in the opening half.

DelliCompagni and Reyes bookended goals around a Finnie marker to cut the margin to 11-6 for the Lions with 4:59 showing on the third quarter clock. 

Wheaton scored five of the next six goals, including Finnie's 100th career goal with 42 seconds to go in the third quarter. Kilbourn netted her second goal during the stretch to give the home team a 16-7 advantage with 11:11 to play in the game.

Selby notched her hat trick just 55 seconds later to make it 16-8 for Emerson. Finnie and Kilbourn scored in a span of 52 seconds and LeBeau capped the Lyons' scoring spree with 3:44 left in the quarter to give them their largest lead at 19-8.

DelliCompagni scored the final marker of the night for the Lions with 21 seconds left in the period.

Wheaton returns to action on Saturday, March 30 when it heads to South Hadley, Mass. to play NEWMAC foe Mount Holyoke College at 1:00 p.m., while Emerson hosts league rival Babson College on the same day at 7:00 p.m.