TROY, N.Y. – Senior Stephanie Caouette tallied a game-high five goals to lead the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) women's lacrosse team to a 10-5 victory over Western New England College at Renwyck Field. The game marked the season opener for the Engineers, while the Golden Bears slip to 1-2 in the young season.

The Engineers opened the scoring quickly as Caouette (Wynantskill, NY/Columbia) scored the first of her two first half tallies at 27:43 on the free position. Western New England came charging back to tie it at 1-all as rookie Kelsey Daniels (South Windsor, CT/South Windsor) fired one in less than three minutes later.

Rensselaer responded in kind, ripping off three straight goals over the next seven minutes to build up a 4-1 lead. Sophomore Alissa Peterson (Gaithersburg, MD/Quince Orchard) netted her first of the year at 18:27 and Caouette scored just over a minute later after fighting through traffic for a low shot past Golden Bears netminder Marissa Bonitatibus (Yorktown Heights, NY/Yorktown).

Graduate student Whitney Kukol (Johnson City, NY/Johnson City) pushed the advantage after collecting a behind the net feed from rookie Meg Colitz (East Greewich, RI/LaSalle Academy) at the 11:15 mark, but the Golden Bears continued to press as Daniels scored her third of the game with 8:29 remaining to close the gap to two (5-3).

The Golden Bears tacked on another tally to make it a one-goal game, but senior Afton Marshall (Windham, NH/Salem) notched a free position goal with 28 seconds left in the half to make it a 6-4 advantage at the intermission.

In the second half, both teams played solid defense as the ball criss-crossed the field, neither team finding the net until the 20:28 mark as Caoutte scored on a free position to stretch the home team's lead to three. Senior Jeanmarie Barbato (Huntington Station, NY/Walt Whitman) cut the lead back to two (7-5) with 16:16 left on the clock, scoring her own free position tally, but the Engineers would take over the offensive front.

Back-to-back goals from Caouette made it a 9-5 advantage and Marshall scored her second free position tally of the day with one second left on the clock to seal it.

In addition to Caouette, the Engineers saw Marshall and Kukol notch a pair of goals, while Peterson had a goal and an assist. In the cage, sophomore Allie Arnal (Lakewood, NY/Phillips Exeter Academy) picked up her first collegiate victory, stopping two shots.

For Western New England, Daniels tallied three goals and assisted on another. Barbato and senior Nicole Poli (Medfield, MA/Medfield) also recorded goals. Bonitatibus shouldered the loss for the Golden Bears, make 10 saves.

The Engineers return to action on Friday when they travel to Rochester to face Nazareth in a 4pm start. Western New England plays again on March 15 against Occidental College in Los Angeles, Calif. (7pm).