A strong offensive effort powered the St. Lawrence University women's lacrosse team to a 26-2 win over SUNY Potsdam on Friday afternoon at North Country Field.

Jessica LaPlaca and Cate Rathnam led the charge with four goals each, while Tallis Tarbell, Read Roy and Ava O'Rourke each added a hat trick. Caroline Hamilton, Keira Dodd and Abrianna Fults scored two goals apiece, while Evelyn McAuliffe, Camryn Sipher and Jolie Osborne each tallied a goal.

Roy and O'Rourke recorded their first career hat tricks, while Fults and McAuliffe, tallied their first career goals in Scarlet and Brown. Sipher and Osborne both connected for their first goals of the season.

Winnie Downs recorded a team-best three caused turnovers, while Eliza D'Agostino picked up three ground balls and Hamilton won six draw controls.

Rathnam tallied a hat trick off the bat, scoring the first three goals for the Saints in the opening quarter. St. Lawrence went on to score the first nine goals to build a 9-0 lead. The Bears were able to sneak in a goal with 25 seconds remaining in the first to make it 9-1.

SLU shutout Potsdam 7-0 in the second frame, taking a 16-1 lead at halftime and continued their strong standing in the third outscoring the Bears 8-0 to head into the fourth quarter up 24-1.

Potsdam's Daly Duffy scored first in the fourth but was followed up by goals from Dodd and Fults to finish with the 26-2 final.

"The team played hard and I was happy with our improvements on the draw," said head coach Tom Ryan. "We were tenacious on the ride, getting the ball back on several occasions. We played a clean game and stayed out of the box. Our offense was firing on all cylinders. We moved the ball well and played unselfishly."



Maggie Akin and Duffy each scored for the Bears.

Sophomore Keating Gullott recorded her first career win in goal, while Olivia Minarich made three saves and Jane Olszewski finished with six.

SLU outshot Potsdam 34-2 and won 23 draws to the Bears' seven.

St. Lawrence improved to 2-1 on the season, while SUNY Potsdam fell to 1-2.

The Saints will hit the road to play No. 1 Middlebury on Sunday, March 8 at 12 p.m.