From start to finish, the Roger Williams University women’s lacrosse team dominated neighboring Salve Regina University in a 21-4 rout on Tuesday afternoon.

Junior Emily Stoeppel was one of seven Hawks to score on the day, leading the way for RWU tallying six goals and three assists. Senior Kaelin Hogan also had a great game, registering five goals and three assists.

“Our team is really good at moving the ball and feeding, which really helps me out,” Stoeppel said on her performance.

While upperclassmen did a bulk of the work for the Hawks, a number of underclassmen also stepped up on this day. Freshmen Maeve Gillis, Delena Erickson and sophomore Shayne Rivard each added two goals, while Erickson also had a strong game on the draw. Freshman Devon Sarazin also added a goal and game-high four dishes.

Hawks head coach Jennifer Fox was complimentary of her group’s efforts in what she called a “team win,” but was especially impressed with the underclassmen that stepped up as the team has been nursing a few injuries.

“We actually had seven people score today, which I know in the past having played against this team, scouting this team, it’s been kind of been like a two-man show,” Fox said. “I think we bring a whole other level. I was just joking, ‘I’d love to see the scouting report for us.’ Because in the past it’s just been two people. Now I think we have more threats. Our underclassmen, our freshmen class is really strong and even some of our sophomores…. And we actually have a lot of injuries right now. We’ve had to shuffle around our starters, so I’ve actually been really impressed with some of our underclassmen stepping up that haven’t really been starting because of the injuries that we’re suffering. Overall, it was definitely a team win.”

Entering the matchup, the Hawks were seeking their second conference win of the year, while the Seahawks were searching for their first victory overall.

The winless Seahawks got off to a surprising start when they took a 1-0 lead just three minutes into the game off a score from Kaity Doherty, but the Hawks would answer with five straight goals to cease any momentum.

Stoeppel scored the first two times in the stretch, while Gillis, senior Carly Martin and Hogan each added a goal for a 5-1 lead.

Salve answered RWU’s goals with two of their own in a span of 23 seconds by Lindsey Smith and Olivia Slysz to cut the deficit to two and putting some pressure on the Hawks.

From that point onward however, the Hawks began to pull away with the underclassmen in the lead.

Goals by Martin, Rivard and Sarazin gave the Hawks a 8-3 lead before the Seahawks would score their final time in the game on a shot from Stephanie Salisbury at the 13:09 mark, making it a 8-4 game.

Gillis, Rivard and Erickson scored to make the lead seven goals at 11-4 before the veterans of Martin, Stoeppel and Hogan closed out the half with three more, going into halftime with a 14-4 lead.

In the final 30 minutes, the Hawks scored the ball at a lower clip, getting goals from Erickson, Hogan and Stoeppel to keep the offense moving. However, it didn’t matter much as RWU stymied the Seahawks on defense in the final half, keeping Salve Regina scoreless in the period.

Fox stated she actually made it a point to her players at halftime that she did not want to see any more goals allowed in the second half. She was pleased with how her players responded.

“We did a visualization before the game and I had them picture, ‘What’s the scoreboard gonna be?’ And I think a lot of people at the end said that it was something to four, something to four,” she said. “I don’t know if it was our visualization that did it or great defense, but I was very proud of them. They stuck to what I asked them to do and they did it.”

With the victory, Fox says that the team is beginning to trend into what she’s hoping they become.

“I thought we stuck to the game plan and did a good job of just looking towards each other,” she said. “I thought we played from back to front as a team and I think that’s been our focus this year is to really incorporate everyone.”

The Hawks attained their second conference win in two tries and improved to 6-2 overall with the victory.

RWU heads on the road to play non-conference opponent Wheaton College (3-4) for a 1 o’clock matchup on Saturday, March 31.