Owls offense soars in rout of Raiders

GAMBIER, Ohio – Coming back from a five-game slate in Virginia and Flordia during spring break, the Kenyon College women’s lacrosse team took on the University of Mount Union on Tuesday afternoon from The Field at Benson Bowl.

Although the Purple Raiders kept it close early, only trailing 3-2 with 9:45 remaining in the opening quarter, the Owls offense went on a 13-goal run to take control of the game and hand Mount Union its first loss of the season, winning 19-5.

Mount Union (5-1) struck first on the scoresheet, as Ella Nejad put the Raiders up 1-0 just 14 seconds into the contest. Ali Hatfield and Maddie Garner scored back-to-back goals less than a minute later to give Kenyon (4-3) a 2-1 lead. Later in the quarter, Mount Union tied it up at two, but Kate Lengel added a goal of her own at 9:45 in the first to put the Owls up 3-2. 

From that point until 13:57 in the fourth quarter, the Purple Raiders were held scoreless, despite averaging 17.6 goals per game during its five-straight wins to start the season. The Owls’ offense on the other hand fired off 13-straight goals from eight different scorers, quickly putting the game out of reach.

Lengel led the way with three goals in the run, with one in the second quarter and two in the third to cap off her game-high four goal afternoon. Mallory Brophy, Ali Hatfield, and Lily Mason each scored two during the run, which took up 26:15 of game time. Also finding the back of the net were Blythe Karras, Alex Tiatia, Bridgette Cassidy, and Delaney Champeau. To start the fourth quarter, the Owls were up 16-2. 

On the other end of the field, Nola Garand was one save shy of tying her season-high, recording 14 stops for the game. As a team, Kenyon controlled the ground ball contest 22-11 and capitalized on four caused turnovers. 

The Purple Raiders netted three straight to stop the run in the opening minutes of the fourth, but three more goals by Karras, Garner, and Brophy capped off the 19-5 win. 

Karras led the team with six points, scoring two goals and dishing out a career-high four assists, tying her career-best single-game point total. Hatfield had two assists to add to her hat trick, while Brophy added a trio of goals along with Lengel’s four. 

Kenyon improves to 4-3 on the year. The team will be off this weekend but will conclude its non-conference schedule on Sunday, March 31, facing off against Christopher Newport University at 12:00 pm and honoring Morgan’s Message.