Box Score SPRINGFIELD, Mass.--Senior Kaitlynn Stevens led four Golden Bears who had multiple goals as Western New England University used a fast start to cruise past University of New England, 20-8, in Commonwealth Coast Conference women's lacrosse action on Saturday at Golden Bear Stadium. The host Golden Bears improve to 7-1 overall and 2-0 in the CCC, while the Nor'easters fall to 3-6 on the season and 1-1 in the conference.

Stevens (game-best 7 draw controls) finished with game highs of seven goals and nine points, followed by junior Brooke Kumnick with five goals and two assists, senior tri-captain Jessica Scannapieco (7 draw controls, 2 caused turnovers) with four goals and an assist, and junior Tori Cirocco had three goals and two assists.

Gina Newsome paced UNE with three goals while Macki Hill added a pair. Johanna Currier led all players with five ground balls.

Stevens won the opening draw control, working the ball to junior Taylor Scialdone who passed it back to Stevens for the game's first goal just 18 seconds elapsed. Scialdone ended the afternoon with a game-best five assists.

Hill tied it at 25:18 before Scannapieco put Western New England up 3-1 with back-to-back goals 48 seconds apart ending at the 23:51 mark.

UNE came back to knot the score again as Carly Sheehan and Newsome at 22:07 and 21:31, respectively, to make it 3-3.

Defense created WNE's next goal and ignited a decisive 9-0 scoring run. Scannapieco intercepted Amelie Petersen's pass at midfield and passed downfield to Stevens, who found Kumnick for the go-ahead goal with 21 minutes and 3 seconds remaining. Western New England held a commanding 14-4 advantage at halftime.

UNE scored the first two goals of the second half by Newsome and Hill, but would not get close the deficit to eight goals again.

Freshman Julia Winer highlighted WNE's six-goal second half by assisting on three of them for a career-high three points in a game. Senior defender Emily Klag closed out the scoring with her first goal of the season--third of her career--on a feed from Winer.

Western New England senior goalie Emily Castleman picked up 12 saves and three ground balls. Lauryn Huck played the first 18:30 in the UNE goal, allowing 11 goals and making 2 saves. Courtney Kendall finished the final 41:30, posting eight saves while surrendering nine tallies.

Besides the scoreboard, Western New England also held statistical advantages in shots (37-27), shots on goal (31-20), caused turnovers (10-7) and draw controls (18-12). The Nor'easters had 29 ground balls to 27 for WNE.

Western New England is back in action at 4 p.m. Tuesday in Wenham where it will play Gordon College.

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