MEDFORD, MA (March 15, 2025) -- Senior
Margie Carden tallied five goals for the No. 2 Tufts University women's lacrosse team Saturday afternoon against Hamilton College, helping lead the Jumbos to a 17-5 New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) victory in play from Bello Field.
The five goals for Carden were a season-high for the senior, as she now leads the Jumbos in scoring on the season with 17. She has tallied four or more goals in each of her last three games. The Jumbos would also get a stellar performance from senior backstop
Pascale de Buren, as the netminder stopped a season-high 10 shots while allowing just five goals to lower her goals against average down to 6.07 on the season.
The Jumbos got things going early on in the first quarter, as junior attack
Allie Zorn scored back-to-back goals within 43 seconds of each other to put Tufts up 2-0. The rest of the quarter would be dominated mostly by good defensive play and strong goalkeeping on both sides, as Carden's woman-up goal with 4:14 to play in the frame made it 3-1 going into the second.
The second quarter would see the Jumbos get goals from graduate student
Emma Joyce and senior
Ella Lesperance before Hamilton (1-3, 0-3 NESCAC) scored on a person-up goal with 4:17 left in the quarter to make it 5-2. Carden would answer 11 seconds later with a goal, followed less than two minutes later by another score by Carden to make it 7-2 at the break.
The third quarter would be where Tufts pulled away, as the Jumbos outscored the Continentals 6-1 in the third quarter thanks to six different goal scorers to make it 13-3 after 45 minutes. Hamilton's Maddigan Leifer scored twice to cut Tufts' lead to nine at 14-5, but first-year
Neta Leschly launched a three-goal run by the Jumbos to end the game to make the final spread of 12 at 17-5.
Carden had six points on five goals and one assist, scoring on two of her three free-position shots, while Zorn finished with three goals and an assist in the win. Lesperance had a score and two helpers, and sophomore
Sophia Claps joined Joyce with two goals on the day. Senior
Kate Mastrobuono also had two assists in the game for Tufts, who outshot Hamilton 32-21 for the game.
Sophomore
Grace Hammond had a team-high two ground balls and three draw wins, and
Elsa Schutt had two caused turnovers and a goal. Defender
Nicola Sommers was also strong in the clear game, and
Madeline Delaney and
Genna Gibbons combined for 12 draw controls as well.
Hamilton got a team-high three goals from Leifer, and goalkeeper Clara Paolucci had seven stops in goal for the Continentals.
Tufts will have six days off before heading south to Lexington, Virginia to battle No. 10 Washington & Lee University Friday, March 21 at 6 p.m. in a non-conference tilt.
