MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – Hosting No. 9 ranked Franklin & Marshall in their 2026 home opener, No. 4 Wesleyan women's lacrosse scored four unanswered goals at the start of the game and never looked back, leading wire-to-wire in a 10-7 win on Saturday afternoon from Smith Field. The Cardinals improve to 2-0 on the year while the Diplomats (1-2) lose their second straight game.
 
The pressure was applied right from the opening draw as Wesleyan picked up the ball and after a lengthy possession featuring four shot attempts, Addie Cummings '26 found the back of the net on a drive to cage to make it 1-0.
 
The Cardinal defense shined all throughout the first quarter, forcing turnovers on each of the first four F&M possessions of the contest. Meanwhile, on the other side of the turf, Kyra Browne '26 worked her way through the Diplomat defense before scoring her first of the day. Mya Waryas '27 and Dylan Green '26 added free position goals to push the advantage up to 4-0.
 
F&M found their first goal late on in the frame, with Sophie Harris converting a feed from Devyn Crone on what was the first and only Diplomat shot attempt in the first quarter.
 
The script flipped in the second quarter when F&M outshot Wesleyan 10-3, but both teams scored just once in the frame as the Cardinals kept hold of a three-goal advantage at halftime.
 
The Dipolmats made their move in the third quarter, outscoring Wesleyan 3-1 to close the deficit to 6-5 after three. The Cardinals outshot F&M 9-5 in the quarter but all five of the Diplomats' shot attempts landing on-cage with three of them beating Izzy Weintraub '26 in net.
 
After scoring just twice over 30+ minutes of play, Wesleyan scored twice in the opening three minutes of the fourth quarter to restore a three-goal advantage. Browne completed her hat trick just 23 seconds into the period while Cummings took a pass from Green and shot low on Sara DiGiovanni to make it 8-5.
 
Lauren Pittman for F&M scored on a free position with just under 10 minutes left to make it a two-goal game, but the Cardinals put the game away with back-to-back free position goals from Lindsey Diomede '26 and Bridget Horst '26.
 
One week removed from setting the single-game team record in draw controls, Browne made more personal history on Saturday with her first career hat trick, scoring three times and adding six draw controls to her totals. Green recorded two goals and one assist in her season debut while Cummings scored twice.
 
Horst was all over the field, recording three draw controls, two caused turnovers, two ground balls, and one goal while Diomede had a near identical stat line with three draw controls, two caused turnovers, and one goal. Elise Kurtis '29 led the Cardinal defense with three caused turnovers and four ground balls. Weintraub made four saves in net.
 
Wesleyan heads to Stevens on Wednesday night for a 7 PM start for their next contest.