Babson Park, MA --- Madisyn Bagby (Aurora, CO) and Lottie McLeod (Newton, MA) both connected on early penalty kicks and Maeve Steckley (Rochester, NY) added an insurance goal in the final minute as WPI defeated host Babson 3-1 in a NEWMAC women's soccer match played Wednesday afternoon on Hartwell-Rogers Field.
 
WPI is now unbeaten (3-0-3) over its last six matches and moves to 5-2-3 on the season and 2-0-1 in conference play.  The Beavers, who had tied its previous three matches, sees its unbeaten streak of five (2-0-3) snapped while at the same time extending its winless skid to four (0-1-3), dip to 2-4-3 overall and 0-1-2 in NEWMA action.
 
The Engineers converted penalty kicks on the first two shots of the game.  Just 4:47 into the match, Steckley made a long run and was taken out for a yellow card and a penalty kick.  Bagby stepped up and nailed the spot kick for her second goal of the season and her eight of her career.   Just over two minutes later a Babson push called on right edge of the box resulted on the second PK which McLeod connected for her first tally of 2024 and third of her career.
 
Trailing 2-0 before mustering a shot, the Beavers regrouped and nearly immediately pulled a goal back but Carolina Silva's (Miami, FL) bid was repelled by a diving save by WPI netminder Lili Hellerman (Ashland, MA) just 29 seconds after McLeod's goal.   About midway through the half, Elisa Diletizi (Canton, MA) blasted a shot over Hellerman but hit the crossbar and stayed out of the net.
 
The hosts did cut into the Crimson and Gray's lead on a wild sequence nearly eight minutes after intermission.  Diletizi's initial shot got past Hellerman only to be cleared off the line by McLeod but Diletizi scored on a scramble in front of the net for her second goal of the year at 52:44.
 
Babson continued to apply pressure but could not break through.  After the second of two PK's the Beavers attempted 15 of the match's next 18 shots but over the last eight minutes, the Engineers seized control, rattling off five of the contest's last six shots and put the game away with 48 second remaining when Bagby played a ball over the top that was chipped past a defender to Steckley, whose low shot found the back of the net for her fourth marker of the season.
 
Hellerman posted six stops in a winning effort in between the pipes for WPI while Nora Ryan (Abington, MA) was credited with a pair of saves for the Beavers.  On the day, Babson held a 16-10 edge in shots and earned seven of the match's eight corners.
 
Both teams continue the NEWMAC portion of their schedules on Saturday.  WPI plays host to Smith at noon while Babson makes the crosstown jaunt across Wellesley to take on the Blue at 1pm.