GENEVA, N.Y. — The No. 16 William Smith lacrosse team built a 4-0 lead in the first half and went on to defeat Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), 7-2, in a Liberty League game at Boswell Field. With the win, the Herons improve to 4-3 overall and 2-0 in the Liberty League, while the Engineers drop to 3-2-1 this year and 1-1 in conference action.
 
Senior Ali Burns led the Herons with two goals. Freshman Kelsey Williams added a goal and an assist, while classmate Mekayla Montgomery won a game-high three draws. Senior Melissa Moore had a goal, a draw, two ground balls and a game-high three caused turnovers. Freshman Jules Kennedy made six saves and picked up a game-high four ground balls.
 
Juniors Maddy Aslansan and Morgan Doyle each scored for the Engineers. Classmate Erin Goodwin had a team-high two ground balls and two draw controls and added a caused turnover. Junior goaltender Aleena Milinski had 15 saves in goal for RPI.
 
The Herons scored the first four goals of the game, with the first coming 4:10 in. Senior Sarah Benyo took an initial shot on goal that was saved by the RPI keeper. First-year Sadie Mapstone was there to scoop up and bury the rebound.

With 9:39 left in the first, Burns scored her first of the day, drilling her shot into the top left corner. Just over a minute later, Williams found the back of the net to make it 3-0 with her seventh goal of the season, and with 1:09 before the break, sophomore Nicki Santora weaved her way through traffic before sending home her shot to make it 4-0.
 
William Smith tallied the first two goals of the second half to go up 6-0. Just 1:44 in, Burns notched her second of the afternoon and 11th of the season firing her shot over Milinski's head. Fifty-five seconds later, Moore extended the Heron lead to six. First-year Anna Murphy was awarded a free position attempt, but instead of shooting she dished to Moore who logged her team-leading 14th goal of the spring.
 
Doyle broke through for RPI with 18:24 left in the game. She capitalized off a feed from sophomore Shyla Niemann, from behind the goal. Just over a minute later, sophomore Bizzer Gahagan put William Smith back up by six with her sixth goal this year. Williams carried the ball inside the arc, but dished to Gahagan who scored from the right side. With 7:04 remaining, Aslansan scored on a free position for the Engineers.
 
The Herons had a 33-14 advantage in shots. William Smith dominated ground balls 30-10. RPI held a 6-5 edge in draws.
 
William Smith is back in action tomorrow when it hosts Union for another Liberty League game at 3pm. RPI travels to Rochester tomorrow (2pm).