BRUNSWICK, Me. – With the score tied 3-3 at the half, the No. 12 nationally-ranked Wesleyan women's lacrosse team outscored No. 17 Bowdoin 8-3 in the second half to earn an impressive 11-6 road win in NESCAC play. The Cardinals (6-1, 2-1 NESCAC) are winners of three straight while the Polar Bears (5-3, 1-3 NESCAC) saw their four-game win streak come to an end.
 
Facing off against what was the NESCAC's top scoring offense (16.4 goals per game) heading into the game, Wesleyan's top-ranked defense in the conference (6.5 goals allowed per game) shined throughout, limiting Bowdoin to a season-low 19 shots while forcing the Polar Bears into a season-high 22 turnovers. The shots that did manage to get through were largely turned aside by Abby Wolk '22 who set a new season-high with eight saves, the second-highest single-game total of her career.
 
The Cardinals drew first blood in this one, scoring twice in the opening five minutes as Olivia Lai '23 found the back of the net, beating her defender on an isolation drive from the wing. Kate Balicki '23 then was on the receiving end of a great feed from Laura Baine '24 through all sorts of traffic as Wesleyan led 2-0 early.
 
Bowdoin then found their footing as the Polar Bears scored two goals in a span of 1:44 to knot the score at 2 apiece after one. Bowdoin took their first lead on a Charlotte Howie strike 59 seconds into the second quarter, followed by a goalless span of 7:59 before Kendall Mittleman '23 took a Balicki feed and scored to make it 3-3 at the half.
 
The Polar Bears continued to push to start the third quarter, scoring two goals in quick order once again as Colleen McAloon and Emelia Krakora scored just 1:13 apart as Bowdoin opened up a 5-3 lead.
 
The game, however, took a sudden change as Lai and Balicki answered back with unassisted goals to tie the score at 5-5 before Baine scored her first two goals of the game less than a minute apart and Wesleyan all of the sudden led 7-5 heading into the fourth.
 
That 4-0 run to end the third quarter continued into the fourth as Wesleyan added on three more unanswered goals, extending their scoring run to 7-0 as the Cardinals led by 5 with 5:40 remaining. Lai completed her hat trick 2:24 into the fourth while Baine also netted her third before Gil Horst '23 finished off a feed from Mittleman that made it 10-5 in favor of Wesleyan.
 
After McAloon scored to make it 10-6 with 5:15 remaining, Wesleyan's defense held Bowdoin to just one shot (off target – high)  in the final 5+ minutes of play, as Lai scored with under a minute left to ice away an impressive all-around win for the Cardinals.
 
Baine added to her NESCAC-leading point total for the season as she finished with three goals and one assist to increase her season total to 36 (20 goals, 16 assists) through seven games. Lai scored four goals for the third straight game as she is now second in the NESCAC in goals (24) this season.
 
Mittleman (one goal, two assists) and Balicki (two goals, one assist) added three points each. Horst posted four draw controls to lead the Cardinals who edged Bowdoin in that category 12-9 for the game. Horst added two caused turnovers while Indigo Pellegrini de Paur '21, G'22 and Reilly Short '23 also finished with two each.
 
Wesleyan has a quick turnaround as the team will stop at Babson for a 1 PM Sunday afternoon non-conference game before returning home.