BOWDOIN COLLEGE women’s lacrosse player Allison Williams, right, escapes Amber Jenkins (15) of the University of New England at the Big Blue Turf in Biddeford on Tuesday. Williams and the Polar Bears built an early lead and rolled to a 20-7 win.
The newly nationally ranked Bowdoin College women’s lacrosse team is sure playing like it.
After a big upset win over Amherst on Sunday that propelled the Polar Bears to No. 16 in the latest Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association Division III poll, they traveled down to the Big Blue Turf at the University of New England on Tuesday where it was goals galore.
Sophie Lubrano got the scoring started for No. 16 Bowdoin (2-0, 1-0 NESCAC) at 27:46 when she converted on a free-position take. Hannah Hirschfield made it 2-0 a minute-and-a-half later, and for the first five minutes of the game, the ball didn’t cross into the Polar Bears’ half.
BOWDOIN’S HALSEY MCKINNEY runs down the sideline past UNE’s Anna Stowell (back) and avoids the stick of Brooke Kelleher (left) during the first half of Tuesday’s game.
Senior attacker Kelsey Gallagher found the back of the net on an unassisted running goal at 18:15 before the Polar Bears scored three times in just 46 seconds to make it 6-1. Kate McAloon and Gallagher added two more goals by 15:46 and after a mere 71 seconds it was 8-1.
“We’ve been working really hard on a bunch of new free-flow attacks,” Gallagher said. “Our new assistant coach Paula (Habel) has been a genius on attack. To figure out how to move the ball quickly, set some touches on it before we go for the attacks.
“We’ve also been working a lot on slow-breaking. If the fast-break’s not on, taking it behind the net, working it around and re-attacking. Paula is the brain of the operation.”
Freeport’s Jocelyn Davee and Megan O’Grady finally stopped the bleeding and got UNE back on the board with a pair of goals at 8:54 and 6:51, but Bowdoin was far from finished.
Natalie Rudin followed another Hirschfield score with one of her own when she sprinted down the seam and finished at 4:27. Then, right off the draw-control, Mettler Growney scored again. The Polar Bears fired 21 shots in the first half and took a 12-4 lead into the break.
“I think when we settled into our offense and got the ball moving is what really helped us out,” Bowdoin coach Liz Grote said. “Staying a little bit bigger.”
“It’s always easy to play with momentum,” Gallagher said. “One thing we’ve been working on is always playing to our standard. Just making sure that we’re always gaining momentum — we don’t have to wait for a momentum shift. Just take it to them.”
Sharing the shots
The two sides exchanged goals to start the second half, with Gallagher completing her hat trick for Bowdoin (28:39) and Davee adding a second for UNE (24:33). Davee’s goal, which made the score 14-6, came on a fast break down the field and if Grote had any complaints about Tuesday’s result, that was one of them.
“I would have liked it to be a little bit better,” Grote said of the defense. “Gave up a couple fast-break goals. We’ve got to clean that up.”
Still, Bowdoin responded with another scoring spree to officially seal the game. Annie Glenn scored back-to-back goals at 19:53 and 17:13 before Growney made it two at 8:25. The score was 19-6 when Allison Williams rounded out the visitors’ scoring with a free-position finish at 6:20.
In all, 11 different Polar Bears found the back of the net.
“We’re definitely trying a mix of people,” Grote said. “We have a very young squad, as you can see on the roster, but it just shows the depth of our team — that we can get people on and off. We want everybody being a threat.”
“We just have a really deep team this year,” Gallagher said. “We’re just really fortunate that we have a lot of players that have so much potential and see the back of the net really well.”
Bowdoin claimed 20-of-29 draw controls on the night and had 22 ground balls to UNE’s 15. The attack forced 12 saves of Nor’easters goalie Maritza Nary, and on the other side, Kayli Weiss needed to make just three.
It’s an ideal start to the season, but the Polar Bears are trying not to get carried away.
“I think starting off with a win just sets a good tone for us,” Grote said. “With a young team it’s good and the energy’s good and just keep moving forward with that.”
“It’s definitely helpful, but we take every game one-by-one,” Gallagher said. “We’re just thinking about the next one and we don’t think about if we’ve won or lost in the past. Just going forward, playing our best.”
Bowdoin will host Williams on Saturday at noon before traveling down to Florida for a pair of games next week.
Bowdoin 20, UNE 7
At the Big Blue Turf in Biddeford
| Bowdoin — | 12 | 8 | — | 20 | |
| UNE — | 4 | 3 | — | 7 |
Goals — (B) Hannah Hirschfield 5, Kelsey Gallagher 4, Annie Glenn 2, Mettler Growney 2, Elizabeth Growney, Kate McAloon, Gloria Zhao, Allison Williams, Sophie Lubrano, Natalie Rudin, Alexandra Logan; (UNE) Jocelyn Davee 3, Anna Stowell 2, Megan O’Grady, Brooke Kelleher. Assists — (B) Kara Finnerty 3, Kelsey Gallagher 3, Annie Glenn 3, Natalie Rudin, Sophie Lubrano, Leigh Fernandez, Allison Williams; (UNE) Kimberly Gosselin 2, Korinne Bohunsky, Jocelyn Davee, Nichole Carvalho, Jolena Lampron. Saves — (UNE) Maritza Nary 12; (B) Kayli Weiss 3. Draw-controls — Bowdoin 20, UNE 9. Records — Bowdoin 2-0, UNE 2-1. Up next for the Polar Bears— Saturday at home against Williams, Noon.
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