BABSON PARK, Mass. – Three different players scored to fuel a 3-1 victory for the number five seed Wheaton College (Mass.) women's soccer team over host fourth-seeded Babson College this afternoon in the New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference Championship Tournament Quarterfinals on Hartwell-Rogers Field in Babson Park, Mass.
The Lyons advance to the NEWMAC Semifinals to take on the winner of top-seeded Massachusetts Institute of Technology and number eight seed Wellesley College on Thursday, November 6.
Wheaton improves to 11-7 on the season, while the Beavers slip to 8-5-5.
The Lyons earn a spot in the Semifinals for the first time since 2021. The match marked just the second time since 2016 that the teams had met in the NEWMAC Tournament. Wheaton last defeated Babson, 1-0, in 2016, before the Beavers exacted revenge with a 3-1 win over the Lyons in Babson Park last year when the seedings were the same.
Senior midfielder Mia Wolfgang (Holliston, Mass.) came into the match without a career point and ended the afternoon with her first collegiate goal and assist for Wheaton. Senior goalie Patricia Bandrup (Poway, Calif.) stopped six shots for the visitors, including a penalty kick.
The Lyons scored 6:03 into the match and never trailed in the contest. Wheaton took advantage of a strong head wind that was blowing against the Babson goal and outshot their hosts, 9-3 in the first half. The Beavers owned a 13-4 cushion in the second stanza to give them a 16-13 margin for the match. Both teams attempted eight shots on frame.
The Lyons got on the board in the seventh minute to take a 1-0 edge. Junior forward Mackenna Reynolds (Longmeadow, Mass.) sent a ball from the right sideline to the middle of the field, where the ball caromed off a Babson defender. Wolfgang collected the loose ball just outside the box and stepped into a shot that sailed over the Babson keeper's head and into the far left corner for her first collegiate goal.
Wheaton nearly doubled its lead in the 25th minute after Reynolds was fouled just outside of the box. First year midfielder Kate Rafferty (Westerly, R.I.) took possession of the free kick in the same area where Wolfgang's scoring strike came from. She fired a shot on frame, but the ball hit the crossbar and went straight down in front of the goal line to keep it a one-goal difference.
Babson looked to knot the game in the 27th minute off a corner kick, but a header from junior back Claudia Baiter (Miami, Fla.) was denied by junior back Maya Thomas (Goffstown, N.H.), who was camped on the goalline, to keep the shutout intact.
The Beavers looked to crack the scoring column again in the 57th minute when sophomore forward Lillian McAughan (Bellevue, Wash.) fired a shot directed for the right post, but Bandrup was up to the task to keep the ball out of the net.
Babson continued its pressure just 82 seconds later to gain the equalizer in the 58th minute to pull even at 1-1. Junior midfielder Priscilla-Rose Men-Martin (Rolling Hills Estates, Calif.) played the ball in the box to McAughan, who received the ball with her back to goal. The forward made a move to create space to her right for a low shot past the outstretched Bandrup into the far left post for the marker.
The Beavers reclaimed the lead in the 65th minute to take a 2-1 margin. Senior forward Katie Wickenheisser (Oxford, Conn.) received the ball on the left side just over midfield and weaved around a pair of Babson defenders, before lifting a shot into the top left corner for her eighth score of the year.
Wolfgang factored into Wheaton's third marker to give it an insurance goal with 18:07 remaining in the contest. She sent a lead cross to senior forward Ali Roche (Maynard, Mass.), who jostled with the Beaver defenders, before controlling the ball for a shot that resulted in her team-leading 10th goal of the season and a 3-1 Wheaton lead.
Babson's final chance to pull within a score came with just 23 ticks left on the second half clock. First year forward Autumn Simon (Sharon, Mass.) lined up for a penalty kick, but her shot to the middle of frame was absorbed by Bandrup to seal the victory for the Lyons.
