Belles Stop Scots to Begin Conference Play

Box Score

  • Erin Doyle broke her own school record with nine goals in the win while adding an assist.
  • Molly Stout tallied four goals and an assist.
  • Kendra Osinski made seven saves for the Belles for a 70.0 save percentage.

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - Once the Belles' offense hit their rhythm, they never looked back as the Saint Mary's lacrosse team took a 22-3 win over Alma to open MIAA play.

The two sides played a tight opening six minutes as neither side could find a way past the opposing team's goalie early on. The Belles were able to break through first after keeping a possession alive. Molly Stout had a shot go high, but Saint Mary's maintained the ball on the chase. Kate Kelly then sent home the first goal of the contest 6:26 into play for the 1-0 lead.

The Scots drew even just over two minutes later on an unassisted goal with 21:02 to play in the opening period. Alma kept right with the Belles in large part to the strong play of their goalie Allie Ray. The sophomore made point-blank saves on the next five shots on goal the Belles fired her way as the game remained deadlocked at 1-1 more than halfway through the opening period. Kendra Osinski returned the favor at the other end with three saves over the same span of time. The last such save led to a good clear for the Belles, and Kate Kelly beat Ray with a low shot to regain the lead for the home side with 12:13 on the clock.

Just over a minute later, Erin Doyle found the back of the cage with an unassisted goal for a 3-1 lead. The freshman then solidly shifted the momentum in favor of the Belles with back-to-back goals in a 10-second span at 7:57 and 7:47 to make it a 5-1 Saint Mary's lead. Clare Theisen joined in with a goal of her own at the 5:22 mark for the 6-1 edge. The Scots broke up the scoring run with a strong passing combination from the 12-meter line into the critical scoring area and burying a goal from just outside of the circle. That momentum was quickly regained by the Belles, however, as Erin Doyle won the draw and and promptly scored her fourth goal of the game. As the clock moved closer to the two-minute mark, Doyle caused a turnover and picked up the ground ball to set up a breakaway scoring chance with no one to beat but the goalie. The freshman juked the Alma netminder and buried her fifth goal of the game to make it 8-2 with 2:21 remaining in the half. Raigan Althouse added a free position goal, and Kate Kelly fed a pass to Molly Stout before Stout sent home her first goal of the game late in the period for an 11-2 lead at the break.

The Belles went on to out-score the Scots 11-1 over the final 30 minutes of play as Stout, Doyle, Theisen, Hanna Makowski, and Rachael Leonard each tallied at least one goal in the half for the 22-3 final.

Erin Doyle broke her own school record with nine goals in the win while adding an assist. Molly Stout tallied four goals and an assist. Clare Theisen had three goals, an assist, nine ground balls, eight draw controls, and five caused turnovers. Kate Kelly chipped in two goals, three assists, and seven draw controls. Rachael Leonard scored a pair of goals while collecting five ground balls. Raigan Althouse notched a goal, three assists, and three ground balls, and Hanna Makowski scored a goal.

Kendra Osinski made seven saves for the Belles for a 70.0 save percentage.

The Belles (6-3, 1-0 MIAA) are back in action on Tuesday, April 3 when they travel to Olivet for a 6:00 p.m. contest.

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