Box Score
WENHAM, Mass.—Gordon Women's Lacrosse kicked off their season with a bang, notching a 15-5 victory over rival Salem State on Thursday evening. The Fighting Scots scored the first 11 goals of the contest and held off the Vikings' offense in the second half to get the early season win.
 
The first half was all Fighting Scots with sophomore Bailey Grinnell (South Hamilton, Mass.) scoring twice in the first five minutes. Sandwiched in between Grinnell's strikes was a goal by Jessica Castelline (Concord, Mass.), who was second on the team in scoring a season ago.
 
Senior Anna Blomberg (Simsbury, Conn.) took a good first step towards matching her 62-goal total from 2013 with scores in the sixth and eighth minutes to give Gordon a 5-0 lead. Castelline, Jane Dietrich (West Hartford, Conn.) and Abby Illian (Hillsdale, N.J.) added three more goals to give the Scots an 8-0 lead halfway through the first period.
 
Blomberg and Grinnell would each pick up a hat-trick by the end of the first half as the Scots held an 11-0 advantage after one half of play.
 
Salem State got on the board early in the second, with unassisted goals from Kristen Ventura and Kelsey Russell. Gordon struck back with the fourth goals of the day for both Blomberg and Grinnell before Russell added her second of the game to make it a 13-3 game in the Scots' favor.
 
Blomberg added her fifth of the season with 10 minutes remaining in the game and Kristin Fitzgerald (Groveland, Mass.) found the twine for her first collegiate goal.
 
The Vikings' Russell added another score with 5:39 remaining in the game to nab her first hat-trick effort of the year. Kristen Caso scored on a free-position goal with just 10 ticks on the clock to put the game at its end result of 15-5.
 
Danielle Maguire (Braintree, Mass.) received the win in goal for the Fighting Scots despite only seeing one shot her way in the first half. Julianne Kirkpatrick (Rochester, N.Y.) and Holly O'Brien (Newtown, Pa.) split time in net during the second half, making a few saves each.
 
Chyenne Jackson made six saves in a losing effort for the Vikings.
 
Salem State returns home for a Saturday matchup with Colby-Sawyer on Saturday morning, while the Scots are on the road at Husson the same day.