NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University women's lacrosse team struck twice in the opening five minutes of their Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) contest against Colby-Sawyer, and the offensive fireworks were on display as the Cadets downed the Chargers 18-13 Wednesday evening at Sabine Field at Haynes Family Stadium.

Allison Sturgeon (Monticello, Ind.) found the back of the net on five separate occasions, two of which were off of a free position attempt, and Emma O'Neill (Hamburg, N.Y.), Michaila Furchak (Nyack, N.Y.), and Bianca Klepper (Upperville, Va.) each scored three goals in the win.  In addition, Valentina Drown (Acton, Maine) scored a pair of goals while dishing out an assists and Maddie Etherton (Johnstown, N.Y.) had a pair of assists.

Katie Bishop-Manning (New York, N.Y.) moved to 7-3 on the season, while Jasmin Contreras (Glendale, Calif.) caused five turnovers in the contest, while grabbing seven ground balls. Julia Proto (Orange, Conn.) had four caused turnovers with eight ground balls, and snagged four draw controls in the matchup defensively.

In the opening minutes of the first quarter, O'Neill had the ball and fired a shot into the back of the net 1:43 second into the contest. Quinn Mustone (Medford, Mass.) followed up just over two minutes later with a goal of her own to give Norwich a 2-0 lead. The Chargers answered after Heather Hanson scored, but Klepper responded with her first goal of the season to regain a two-goal lead.

Colby-Sawyer scored back to back goals, before Drown and Klepper responded with back to back goals 33 seconds apart to take a 6-3 lead into the second frame.

Sturgeon promptly got the offense running in the second, with a pair of goals to open up the second quarter. The Chargers did not back down, scoring three straight goals, before Sturgeon again scored after a pass from Maggie Doyle (Melrose, Mass.) gave Sturgeon the space to fire a shot into the cage and Drown followed with a goal with 3:57 remaining in the second quarter. A goal by Hanson cut the Cadet lead down to three headed into halftime.

O'Neill opened the second half scoring her third goal of the contest and eight goal of the season, 3:39 into the third frame, but Colby-Sawyer responded again to stay within three. Furchak and Contreras both score within 1:03 of each other taking a 13-8 advantage. Hanson again came up clutch for the Chargers scoring her fourth goal of the contest, prior to Norwich scoring on an extra player opportunity.

Norwich and Colby-Sawyer each struck four times each as the Cadets held on for the win.

Norwich (8-3, 6-2 GNAC) will be home on Saturday, Apr. 16 for a 12 pm matchup against Lasell as they celebrate Senior Day. The Cadets will then be the visitors for the remainder of their regular season schedule with three games against Saint Joseph's (Maine), Elms, and Emmanuel next week, before rounding out their regular season slate visiting Dean on Wednesday, Apr. 27.