MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – In one of the more dominant showings in recent memory, the Wesleyan women's lacrosse team put up 15 unanswered goals while holding Claremont-Mudd-Scripps scoreless for 55:15 straight minutes in a 17-3 home win over the Athenas on Wednesday afternoon. Wesleyan (3-0) also forced CMS into 34 turnovers while nine Cardinals scored at least one goal.
 
It was a career day for Kendall Mittleman '23 as the midfielder scored three times for her second career hat trick. Mittleman added a career-high four assists, giving her seven points and easily surpassing her previous career-best total of four points. Laura Baine '24 was also heavily involved with five points (three goals, two assists) to go along with three ground balls as she leads the team with 19 points (10 goals, nine assists) through three games.
 
Contributing all over the field was Olivia Lai '23 as she tallied three goals on the offensive end. While defensive, she added career-highs in both ground balls (six) and caused turnovers (four), both of which signal the highest single-game total for a Cardinal in both statistical categories this season.
 
Both Gil Horst '23 and Kate Balicki '23 finished with the same stat line of two goals, three ground balls and one caused turnover. Maeve Olson '25 led the defense with four caused turnovers while Indigo Pellegrini de Paur '21, G'22 racked up four draw controls, three caused turnovers and three ground balls.
 
Facing CMS for the first time, Wesleyan gave the Athenas all they could handle in this one as after the score was tied 1-1 after a Bella Lynch goal three minutes in, the Cardinals completely dominated in rattling off a 15-0 run up until the final minutes of the fourth quarter.
 
Baine started the scoring run off a Mittleman feed just 41 seconds after Lynch scored in the first quarter and Mittleman followed with a free position strike to make it 3-1 Cardinals.
 
After nearly five minutes without a goal, it was Baine this time finding Mittleman open in front for another Wesleyan first quarter goal. Lai then finished the first quarter scoring with a great individual effort as she forced CMS goalkeeper Kendall Chapko into a turnover on a clearance attempt, picking up the ground ball and scoring on the empty net to give Wesleyan the 5-1 lead after one.
 
The second quarter was dominated by Wesleyan as the Cardinals put up seven goals while outshooting the Athenas 17-3 and forcing CMS into six turnovers while committing just one. Balicki, Lai and Baine each scored twice for Wesleyan in the quarter while Mittleman's third goal of the game capped the scoring for the half as Wesleyan led 12-1 at the break.
 
Chessy Greenwald '23 got involved in the scoring early in the second half with the running clock in effect. Leading 14-1 entering the fourth, Annabel Cincotta '25 scored her first career goal off the first career assist for Alix Riley '25. Kaitlyn McMullan '22 scored for the third straight game late in the quarter before Kiara Tangney '25 put away her first career goal to cap the scoring on the day.
 
Wesleyan set new season-highs in shots (44), ground balls (38) and caused turnovers (25) in the win. Abby Wolk made three saves and allowed just one goal in 42:25 minutes as she picked up her third win of the season in the cage.
 
The Cardinals now head into a stiff weekend test at home starting with No. 12 Colby on Saturday at Noon followed by a Sunday afternoon non-conference showdown with Endicott.