PITTSBURGH – The St. Bonaventure women's lacrosse team moved to 3-1 in Atlantic 10 Conference play with a dominant 20-12 win at Duquesne Wednesday afternoon.
 
The Bonnies scored 20 goals for the second time this season, marking the first time Bona's has recorded two games with 20 or more goals in a season since 2005 when they scored 21 goals in back-to-back 21-10 wins over Siena and Niagara. Bona set its A-10 record for goals in a conference game with 22 at Rhode Island earlier this month.
 
Rylee Gonzalez notched a career-high eight points (5G-3A) in the victory while Tori Nascimento added seven for the Brown and White (6G-1A). Nascimento's six goals tie for fourth in Bonnies single-game history.
 
The Bonnies (7-4, 3-1 A-10) dominated the first quarter of play, starting the game with a 6-0 run in the first 10 minutes.
 
Piper struck first for the Bonnies, netting the first and second goals of the day before Gonzalez made it 3-0 in favor of SBU in the opening two minutes. Piper then completed her first half hat trick with a behind-the-back goal on a free position opportunity.
 
The next two scores of Bona's six-goal opening stanza came off the stick of Tori Nascimento.
 
The Dukes got on the board before the quarter buzzer sounded as Mackenzie Leszcynski found the back of the net.
 
Duquesne (5-5, 2-3 A-10) scored twice to begin the second quarter and cut the Bonnies lead down to 6-3.
 
Grace Hollenbeck's first of the day ended the scoring draught for the Bonnies, but the Dukes responded quickly to stay within three goals of the lead. However, the end of the second quarter was all Bonnies as they went on a four-goal run to take an 11-4 advantage into the intermission.
 
Two goals from Gonzalez were sandwiched between scores from Fiona McGovern and Nascimento to end the quarter.
 
The Dukes opened the third quarter with a quick score, but Nascimento responded with two more to extend the lead to 13-5 with 9:20 on the clock.
 
Duquesne went on a 4-0 run to end the third stanza and cut the Bona lead to 13-9.
 
Out of the quarter break, the Bonnies answered the Duquesne run with three straight goals from Gonzalez, Sidney Van Tassel, and Nascimento.
 
Corinne Webb countered with a goal for the Dukes, but the Bonnies kept pushing offensively adding two goals in under a minute from McGovern and Megan Schillinger to take an 18-10 lead with 7:32 to play.
 
Gonzalez scored her fifth goal of the game with 5:25 on the clock, finishing a feed from Brit Colangelo and putting the game on ice as she gave the Bonnies a 19-10 advantage. 
 
The Bonnies reached the 20-goal mark with nine seconds remaining as Piper scored her fourth of the day off the helper from Gonzalez.
 
Bona's outshot the Dukes 34-27 and commanded on the draw 22-13.
 
QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH LEIGHANN STAUFFER
"That was a good win for us to get back on our feet. I am proud of the way this team responds to setbacks. We're looking forward to Saturday."
 
UP NEXT
The Bonnies travel to VCU looking for their third consecutive win over the Rams. Opening draw is set for noon.
 

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