BRUNSWICK — Playing in the program’s first ever NCAA Division III tournament game, the St. Joseph’s women’s lacrosse team hoped the first 10 minutes of its first-round matchup against Bridgewater State would be a feeling-out process.

Unfortunately for the Monks, Bridgewater State had been to the NCAAs before and wasn’t about to give St. Joseph’s any time to settle in after the opening whistle.

Bridgewater scored the six straight goals in the opening 8 minutes, 51 seconds behind dominance at the draw circle and didn’t look back, never allowing St. Joseph’s to get closer than five the rest of the way as the Bears rolled to a 16-9 win Saturday at Bowdoin College’s Howard F. Ryan Field.

Bridgewater (13-8), which got its first NCAA tournament win in eight tries, will play fifth-ranked Bowdoin (15-3) in a second-round game at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

The defeat snapped a Division III-best 17-game winning streak for St. Joseph’s (17-2). The 16 goals were the most allowed all season by the Monks, who failed to reach double-digits for just the third time.

“We started off a little unconfident, to be honest,” said St. Joseph’s junior midfielder Kat Gadbois. “We had to adjust and change things as we went along, but it was tough (trailing) by six right away. We’re not used to getting smoked in the first part of the game.”

Bridgewater won 20 of 27 draws, including the first 10.

Lauren Geary, a 5-foot-10 junior midfielder who entered fourth in the country with 7.85 draw controls per game, took every draw for the Bears and won six of them to herself.

“The draw basically determined the game,” Geary said. “Our girls in the circle are really good and we won the first six draws, which lead to that 6-0 lead. It’s hard to come back from 6-0.”

Marissa Yowell scored on a free-position shot after just 21 seconds.

Yowell soon added two more goals, along with tallies by Geary, Brooke Buckner and Alex King, and the Monks faced their biggest deficit of the season less than nine minutes in.

“It was difficult,” said freshman midfielder Elyse Caiazzo, who along with Jackie Wilson took most of the draws against Geary. “It took time to fix everything we needed to do to win the draws.”

Trailing 10-4 at halftime, St. Joseph’s tried to build some momentum after it won the opening draw of the second half. The Monks kept possession for three minutes before Gadbois scored the last of her team-high four goals.

But it took Bridgewater just 17 seconds to respond, as Geary gobbled up the next draw and passed to King for a fast-break goal.

Thirty-one seconds later, Yowell scored her fourth goal on another free-position chance – Bridgewater was 4 of 7 on free-positions shots, while St. Joseph’s didn’t have any attempts – to give the Bears a seven-goal lead.

“It was a great experience but we knew today was going to be a little different,” St. Joseph’s Coach Rupert Lewis said. “It’s so hard when you talk about creating momentum (but keep) losing the draws.

“They left it on the field, but the better team won today.”