GENEVA, N.Y.—William Smith College seniors Melissa Moore and Sarah Benyo each logged six goals as the No. 16 Heron lacrosse team defeated RIT 14-9 in a Liberty League game played on Boswell Field. William Smith improves to 6-3 this season and 4-0 in conference play.

Moore added two assists for a game-high eight points. She also picked up a game-high five ground balls and won a game-high seven draws. Her seven draws tie for third on the Heron single game list. First-year Sadie Mapstone scooped up four ground balls, first-year Rachel Yackel won four draws and first-year Mekayla Montgomery came away with five draws. First-year Jules Kennedy made seven saves in goal for the Herons.

Emily Livecchi led the Tigers (4-4, 2-1 Liberty) with three goals and an assist. Alanna Fallone added two goals, and Krystyna Sterio and Colette Rigas each logged a goal and an assist. Rigas won a team-high six draws. Liz Bova and Maegan Schmauder each had two ground balls. Rebekah Snitkoff made 12 saves in goal for RIT.

RIT scored the first goal of the game just 53 seconds with Fallone taking advantage of a free position. Moore responded with a free position goal for the Herons 8:36 in. Under a minute later, senior Ali Burns made it 2-1 William Smith with an unassisted tally, her 13th goal this season. Livecchi answered with back-to-back goals for the Tigers to give RIT a 3-2 lead. Then Moore strung together three goals to put the Herons up 5-3 with 4:24 left in the first. Her first goal in the run came on a free position, the second was assisted by first-year Kelsey Williams and her third was an unassisted tally. First-year Ellie Burns closed out the first half with her fifth goal of the season eight seconds before the break after a feed from Moore.

The Herons continued their run in the second half scoring the first three goals to build a 9-3 lead. All three goals came from Benyo in the first 3:55 of the half. Her first two were unassisted and her second came after a pass from Moore. RIT got an unassisted goal from Sterio and a free position goal from Rigas to make it 9-5 with 19:50 to go. Benyo notched her fourth of the afternoon with 18:25 on the clock, and the Tigers followed with free position goals from Darrell and Livecchi to get the Tigers within three with 14:34 remaining. Moore gave the Herons a 12-7 lead after back-to-back goals just over three minutes apart. Moore leads William Smith with 21 goals this spring. With 8:39 to go, Benyo struck again, getting her fifth of the day after a feed from senior Kelsi Carr. Meghan Donahue and Fallone found the back of the net for the Tigers to make it 13-9 with 1:17 left, but Benyo tallied her sixth goal of the day and 16th of the season on a free position with six seconds remaining for the final.

The Herons finished with a 33-21 lead in shots, a 21-8 advantage in ground balls and a 16-9 edge in draws. William Smith was successful on 15-of-20 clear attempts, while RIT went 14-for-16 on clears.

The Herons are back in action on Saturday, March 31, when they travel to play a non-conference game at Buffalo State at 1 p.m.