Third-year Caralie Basuel piloted the University of Rhode Island women’s lacrosse team to its first victory of the season with seven goals against Rider University on Saturday, before dropping its second game of the week on Wednesday against Stonehill College.
Rhode Island kicked off the match with two goals from second-year Kate Cumins in the opening six minutes. The rest fell into place with goals from Basuel, first-year Ashlyn Carpenter, second-year MJ Timpanaro and third-year Calli Dunn all within the first quarter.
The Rams went into the second quarter with a 6-2 lead. Rider opened up the quarter with two goals less than a minute apart. From there, the Rams picked up the intensity with Cumins completing her hat trick and another Basuel goal to send them into halftime up 8-4.
“A lot of personal mental prep is very important to me,” Basuel said. “Bringing that energy that my teammates always bring me every single day… That really brings so much energy into my preparation into how I perform. I built off of them and everything that they do.”
The third quarter began and opened the floodgates for Basuel. She scored four of the five of the Rams’ second-half goals. Second-year Nicolette Licare contributed her first goal of the year to help push the Rams to a 14-10 victory over the Broncs.
The Rams went on to hit the road in a back-and-forth battle against Stonehill. The Skyhawks opened the game with a goal from first-year Sophia Gouveia that was quickly responded to by a goal from Rhode Island’s fifth-year Kyndall Jackson. Carpenter went on to score the second goal for the Rams.
“Even though they’re young, they’re smart,” Basuel said. “Being able to be a sponge or just adapting to everything that’s been going on, it’s such a learning process. They just did a great job of adapting to how our team is playing right now.”
Stonehill came right back with two goals in one minute to put the Skyhawks up quickly. Cumins scored her first goal of the game on a free position shot to end the quarter tied at three.
Timpanaro scored within the first 35 seconds of the second quarter, starting a back-and-forth battle for the remainder of the quarter. Basuel and Tiampanaro dominated the scoring for the Rams in the second, with two goals from each player to send the Rams into the half tied 7-7.
The third quarter was quiet for both teams until the remaining four minutes, with goals from Stonehill’s Gouveia and second-year Neave Bowman to put the Skyhawks up 9-7 going into the final quarter.
Rhode Island was quick to the gas pedal with Jackson scoring her second goal of the game at 14:46 in the fourth, putting the Rams within one.
Stonehill responded with another score, pushing its lead back to a two-goal game. Carpenter answered with her second goal of the game, putting the Rams within one. The Skyhawks took over, closing out with two more goals, ending the match at 12-9.
The Rams’ next game is set for Saturday at 3 p.m. against the Bryant University Bulldogs on ESPN+.
