GREENVILLE, Pa.— The Allegheny College women's lacrosse team opened the 2017 season with a 13-2 nonconference win over Thiel College Wednesday (March 1) in Greenville.

Shelby Piper scored the first goal of the season for the Gators, assisted by Alexa Maloney, just over a minute into the game.  Just over 60 seconds later, Taylor Vigneri increased the Gator lead to two off a pass from Maddie Olson.  Olson got a goal of her own minutes later on an assist from Jeannie Kirk to grow the lead to three. 
Still in the opening eight minutes, Vigneri scored her second goal of the game, assisted by Piper, to add to the lead.  The Gators offense continued to fire on all cylinders as Piper scored her second goal a minute later.

Neither team found the back of the net over the ensuing 16 minutes.  Kirk broke up the scoreless drought with her first goal of the game with just over six minutes to play in the opening half.  Christine McGrath closed out the first half with a goal with just under five minutes to play, giving the Gators a 7-0 lead at the break.

Ten minutes into the second half, Vigneri completed her hat trick off an assist from Piper.  A minute later, Alex Zielinski got her name on the score sheet with her first goal, assisted by Olson.  No more than 30 seconds later, Maloney netted her first goal, assisted by Jessie Thiessen.  After Olson scored off a pass from Zielinski, Thiessen concluded the Gator scoring with a pair of goals, with Piper assisting on the latter. The Tomcats added two goals in the final ten minutes but it was not enough to overcome the Gators.

Piper led the Gator offense with five points (two goals, three assists).  Olson had four points (two goals, two assists) while Thiessen (two goal, one assist) and Vigneri (three goals) had three points apiece.  Maloney, Kirk and Zielinski had a goal and an assist apiece while McGrath had a goal.

The Gators outshot the Tomcats 31-9.

Vigneri and Kirk collected four groundballs apiece to lead the Gators.  Thiessen and Laurence Busque had three each.  Zielinski, McGrath, Alex Grob and Ashley Potofsky had a pair of groundballs apiece. 

Thiessen led the way with six draw controls.

Defensively, Kirk and Rhiannon King caused three turnovers apiece to lead the Gators.   Kaelin Clogan picked up the win in net, making a pair of saves.

Allegheny was a perfect 12-of-12 on clears while limiting the Tomcats to just 15-of-28.  In draw controls, the Gators led 14-2.

The Gators are back in action Saturday (March 4) to open North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) play against Denison University at 10 a.m.  The game will be played at Thiel College.