First wins  are celebratory and today was no different as the Chestnut Hill College Women's Lacrosse team earned their first win of the season, defeating Saint Thomas Aquinas College 11-5 in Sparkill, New York.

The win was also first-year Head coach Patrice Coleman's first win as the program's mentor, and the program's first win over the Spartans since the 2011 season.  The Griffins improve to 1-1 on the season while STAC dropped to 0-3.

Danielle Vassallo and Madyson Schwartz paced the Griffins offense with Vassallo scoring five times and Schwartz four.  Vassallo also tallied two assists to finish with seven points.  Frances Vassallo had three assists to go along with one goal while Rexney Thenor also tallied one score.  Ashley Watson had two assists.

In net, goalkeeper Mel Amador had ten saves.  Schwartz led the team with five ground balls while Molly Killion added four.

The Griffins stuck first late in the opening quarter as Thenor scored her first goal of the season at the 5:02 mark. Just under two minutes later Danielle Vassallo took a pass from her sister Frances to make the score 2-0.   A STAC goal with just over a minute left in the quarter cut the lead in half, 2-1 as the teams headed into quarter number two.

Danielle Vassallo got her second goal of the game just 2:17 into the period to make the score 3-1.  Frances Vassallo again fed her sister for the score.  Frances Vassallo added her third assist in the game two minutes later as she found Schwartz cutting across in front of the net for an easy goal, her first of the season, giving the Griffins a 4-1 lead.  The Spartans got a man-down goal by Hailey Galison with 5:23 left in the quarter to cut the lead to 4-2.  It was Galison's second goal of the game.
 
Chestnut Hill blew the game open in the third quarter.  After allowing an early score by STAC that cut their lead to 4-3, the Griffins scored five unanswered goals, two of which came while playing a man down.  Frances Vassallo tallied her first goal of the game at the 13:20 mark after assisting on three of the Griffins four first half goal.  Daniel Vassallo completed the hat-trick just 1:25 later while a man-down and Madison Schwartz added back-to-back goals, the first at 11:40 and the second at 3:09, giving the senior attacker a hat-trick of her own.  Danielle Vassallo assisted on the first one, which was also a man-down goal while Ashley Watson got the assist on the second. Danielle tallied her fourth score of the game at the 1:L27 mark to give the Griffins a 9-3 lead.  Watson got the assist on the play.
 
The Spartans got one back to start the fourth quarter before Schwartz scored for the fourth time with 7:59 left, making the score 10-4.   Another Spartan goal cut the lead to 10-5 with just 4:40 left before Danielle Vassallo put the icing on the game with an unassisted goal with 2:53 left, her fifth of the game

Galison tallied four of the Spartans five goals and assisted on the other to pace the home team's offense

The women's lacrosse team returns to action on Saturday, March 4 with a game at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.  First draw is set for 1:00 p.m.