Babson Park, MA --- Graduate student Morgan Krauss (Belmont, MA) scored the go-ahead goal in the 84th minute and second-seeded Babson went on to a 3-2 victory over seventh-seeded WPI Tuesday afternoon in a NEWMAC Women's Soccer Tournament quarterfinal at Hartwell-Rogers Field.
 
With the victory, Babson upped its unbeaten streak to six games (5-0-1) and improved to 11-5-3 overall while WPI winds up its season at 7-8-4. The Beavers will host a tournament semifinal contest on Thursday against either third-seeded Emerson or sixth-seeded Coast Guard, who face off in a quarterfinal on Tuesday evening.
 
Senior Natalie Knauff (Point Pleasant, NJ) tallied a goal and an assist for the Beavers, junior Jordyn Ferrantino (Millis, MA) notched one goal and senior Cassie Lawson (Davie, Fl) registered an assist in the victory. Junior Nora Ryan (Abington, Mass.) made five saves to record the win in goal.
 
First-year Maeve Steckley (Rochester, NY) and junior Mia Gilmore (Canton, MA) scored for the Engineers and junior Madisyn Bagby (Aurora, CO) finished with an assist. Senior Lili Hellerman (Ashland, MA) made seven saves in goal in the setback.
 
The visitors took an early lead in the 12th minute when Bagby sent a through ball over the Babson defense and Steckley ran it down and delivered a shot from near the penalty spot just inside the left post for her fourth goal of the season.
 
Babson pulled even in the 23rd minute when Lawson booted a loose ball from the right side of the goal across in front and Ferrantino knocked it into the open net for her 11th goal of the season, tying her for the NEWMAC lead.
 
The Beavers pulled ahead in the 32nd minute when Knauf intercepted an errant pass and went one-on-one against a defender before ripping a shot from 30 yards out that went inside the left goal post for her fourth of the season.
 
The Green and White had an excellent chance to take a two-goal lead with three minutes remaining in the half but Hellerman came up big, diving to her left to deny a shot by sophomore Izzy DeMatos (Holmdel, NJ) to keep it a 2-1 game at the intermission.
 
WPI leveled the score in the 54th minute when Gilmore made a nice move to get past a defender into open space before ripping a shot under the crossbar from the top of the 18-yard box for her third of the season.
 
With time winding down, the Green and White produced what turned out the be the game-winner with some hard work in the right corner of the offensive zone. Knauff dropped a pass back to Krauss near the right sideline and she sailed ball all the way across to the far corner just inside the left post for her career-high sixth goal of the season and her second game-winner.
 
Babson finished with a narrow 15-13 advantage in shots (11-7 in shots on goal) and had just a 5-4 margin in corner kicks.
 
The game was the third matchup in the NEWMAC Tournament between the two teams in the last five seasons with WPI winning a semifinal in 2019 and advancing in PKs in a 2021 quarterfinal.  The two teams also tangled in a 1997 NEW-8 quarterfinal with the Beavers emerging victorious 26 years ago.  
 
Release Courtesy Babson Sports Information