NASHUA, N.H. - February 24, 2018 - The Colby-Sawyer women's lacrosse team began the 2018 season with an impressive 23-10 victory at Rivier University on Saturday afternoon.

The Chargers have defeated Rivier each of the past three seasons and will play the Raiders in conference action next season as Colby-Sawyer transitions to the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC).
 
Colby-Sawyer's Emily Hoar guided the Chargers to the season opening win in her head coaching debut. The team will continue its 9-game road trip to begin the season with a game at Simmons on Tuesday. Rivier play at Fitchburg State on Thursday. 

Colby-Sawyer scored first and often as senior Bailey Starr (Barre, Vt.) scored the first goal of the season within the first three minutes. It was a back-and-forth affair early on as both squads were finding the back of the net. The game was tied at 3-3 with just under 18 minutes to play in the first stanza before Colby-Sawyer went on a 6-1 run over a five minute span to essentially lock up their first win of the season.

Junior Sierra Schuster (Hopkinton, N.H.) led the Chargers with eight points on five goals and three assists, while Starr finished with five goals. Senior Nicole Lavigne (Berlin, Vt.) also scored five times and added a pair of assists. Lavigne is now tied for fifth all-time with 159 goals. Brittany Ireland (Amherst, N.H.) registered two goals and three assists. In her collegiate debut, freshman Briana Couture (South Hadley, Mass.) scored three times and added an assist. Senior Molly Mulcahy (Nashua, N.H.) had three assists and moved into eighth on the all-time list with 38. 
 
Rivier was led offensively by sophomores Dzenana Omerovic (Revere, Mass.) and Kayla Foye (Billerica, Mass.) who each netted two goals apiece. The Raiders also saw six different student-athletes record goals including senior Lauren Goodspeed (Merrimack, N.H.) and freshman Michaela Charette (Orrington, Maine), who registered her first career goal.
 
Rivier junior goalkeeper Courtney Lapierrere (Keene, N.H.) was credited with 18 saves compared to Colby-Sawyer sophomore Kailyn Lapham's (Medway, Mass.) four saves.

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