PUEBLO, Colo. - Colorado State University Pueblo women's lacrosse continued its season-long five-game homestand here Sunday afternoon by posting an impressive 21-8 victory over Fort Lewis College in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opener for both teams at ALG Stadium. The 21 goals scored are tied for the sixth-most in a game in program history. 

With the win, the Pack earns its first victory of the season and moves its record to 1-4 overall and opens 1-0 in RMAC play for the first time since the 2019 season, while Fort Lewis fell to 0-4 overall and 0-1 in the RMAC. The win snapped a 12-game losing skid for the Pack since picking up a 23-11 win at Tiffin on March 12 and also snapped a 20-game RMAC losing skid for the Pack since earning a forfeit win over Adams State to close out the 2022 season. The Pack had gone 0-10 in league play the past two seasons. 

Sunday's win was also just the second-ever win over the Skyhawks in the program's history, as they had lost nine straight games in the series since earning a 14-11 at home over the Skyhawks on Feb. 24, 2018. Fort Lewis leads the all-time series, 15-2. 

The Pack's win was keyed by five goals each from sophomore midfielders Reese Wasmund (Portland, Ore./West Linn) and Sophia Rinn (Eagle, Colo./Eagle Valley), while freshman midfielder Sydney Gunnels (Dallas, Texas/Coppell) added four goals and freshman attacker Emily Doane (Lake Forest, Calif./El Toro) tallied three goals and two assists for five points. The five goals by Wasmund and Rinn are tied for the eighth most in a game in school history. 

The Pack jumped out to a 3-0 lead just four-plus minutes into Sunday's game, thanks to two goals by Rinn and a free-position goal by Gunnels. After an unassisted goal by Phoebe Ramirez put the Skyhawks on the scoreboard, the Pack used goals by freshman attacker Moira Turpen (Newberg, Ore./Newberg) and sophomore attacker Leeah Carmine (Boise, Idaho/Bishop Kelly) to take a 5-1 lead with 7:18 left in the opening period. The goal by Turpen was her team-leading 14th of the season. 

FLC would score two straight goals to cut the Pack lead to 5-3 with 3:33 left in the period, before Doane scored an unassisted goal with 1:54 left in the period to give the Pack a 6-3 lead. 

Trailing 6-3, FLC opened the second period by scoring three unanswered goals to tie the game at 6-all with 10:59 left in the period. The Pack, though, would get a goal by Doane and back-to-back free-position goals by Gunnels to take a 9-6 lead with 3:17 left. Samantha Rodgers brought FLC within 9-7, thanks to her goal with 1:48 left in the period. The Pack led the game 9-7 at the half. 

Victora Barletta opened the third period on a free position goal just 17 seconds into the period to cut the Pack's lead to 9-8, the Pack closed the period by scoring five straight goals to take a 14-8 lead heading into the final period. Wasmund scored two of the those five goals, while Doane, Gunnels and Rinn scored the other goals. 

The Pack added seven more goals in the fourth period to set the final margin. In the fourth, Rinn got the scoring started on a goal assisted by Doane, before Wasmund scored two straight goals to give the Pack a 17-8 lead with 9:41 left in the period. Freshman defender Kenzie Carpio (Colorado Springs, Colo./Rampart) scored her second goal of the season off a free-position shot with 8:07 left to give the Pack a 10-goal lead and force a running clock.

Following Carpio's goal, Carmine and Wasmund added foals within 78 seconds of each other to give the Pack a 20-8 lead, and Rinn capped the scoring on a free-position goal with 49 seconds left. 

Nine of the Pack's goals came off free position shots, and those nine free-position goals tied a single-game school record. The Pack finished the game 9-for-16 on free-position shots, including Gunnels tying a single-game record with four free position goals, which is tied with Emily Eller's four free-position goals against McKendree on March 7, 2021. 

The Pack held a 36-31 edge in shots and a 31-28 edge in shots on goal. Wasmund (10), Rinn (8), and Gunnels (6) combined for 24 of the Pack's 36 shots. Wasmund and Rinn each had eight shots on goal.

The Pack also held a 26-16 advantage in ground balls as sophomore goalie Breonna Mason (Colorado Springs, Colo./Air Academy) led the way with eight, while Turpen and Rinn each had three.

CSU Pueblo had an 18-15 edge in draws as Wasmund picked up six and Gunnels had five. FLC got seven draws from Rodgers. 

The was also credited with eight caused turnovers, while FLC had 10 in the game. 

Mason (1-4) played all 60 minutes in the cage and finished with a career-high 20 saves. The 20 saves are tied for the second-most in a game by a Pack goalie in school history. Caley Lay (0-4) played the first half in the cage for the Skyhawks and recorded six saves and allowed nine goals. Abigail Leighty played nearly 22 minutes in the cage and also allowed nine goals and made four saves and had one ground ball. 

The Pack will now take 12 days off before returning to action on Friday, March 21, with a 5 p.m. home RMAC game at ALG Stadium against 11th-ranked Regis University.