LEWISTON, Maine -- Four different Bobcats found the back of the cage and the No. 11 nationally ranked Bates field hockey team defeated Stevens by a score of 4-1 Wednesday afternoon in the first round of the NCAA tournament, hosted by Bates at Campus Ave. Field. 

With the victory, the Bobcats (13-6) match the program record for wins in one season, first set in 1975 and equaled one year ago. Bates advances to Saturday's second round where they'll take on No. 7 Babson on the campus of Tufts University at 2 p.m. in a rematch of last year's second-round game, won by Beavers by a count of 1-0 in overtime. 

Bates did not waste any time setting the tone on Wednesday, with the Bobcats taking advantage of a penalty corner in the fourth minute. An initial shot from senior captain Anna Lindeis (New Canaan, Conn.) was kicked away by Stevens goalkeeper Lily Wierzbicki, but the Bobcats were able to maintain possession. Senior Anna Cote (New Gloucester, Maine) found an opportunity when fellow senior Maria Femia (Canton, Mass.) threaded a pass along the goal line through numerous sticks to the All-American, and the Saint Dominic Academy alumna did the rest from the doorstep, scoring her team-leading 12th goal of the season. 

Bates' second goal of the contest came in the final moments of the first half, as Lindeis was not denied this time. She finished the Bobcats' second penalty corner conversion of the day, ripping a shot into the back of the cage in the 29th minute off assists from sophomore Amy LaBelle's (Barrington, R.I.) insert and senior captain Amanda Zerbib's (Larchmont, N.Y. ) excellent stick-stop, putting Bates solidly ahead by a score of 2-0 at first half's end.  

Bates' control of the game centered around their success on penalty corners. Sophomore Haley Dwight's (West Newbury, Mass.) 36th minute goal, taking advantage of a deflection that left the cage all but open when Wierzbicki turned away a Cote shot, marked the Bobcats' third corner conversion, and extended the Bates lead to 3-0. 

Stevens pushed across their lone goal of the game in the 46th minute when Sophia Cozza was able to dribble a pass to the far post, where Emily Smart was waiting. Smart snuck it past the Bobcat keeper into the lower-right side of the cage to cut the Bates edge to 3-1.

Then the visitors nearly trimmed the lead to one when they earned a penalty corner in the 47th minute. Luckily for Bates, first-year goalkeeper Ava Donohue (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) was up to the task, stopping an up-close shot attempt from Makenna Quigley to keep the lead at 3-1. 

After that, junior Brooke Moloney-Kolenberg (Winchester, Mass.) reestablished a commanding advantage for the Bobcats in the 52nd minute, putting the lead back to three goals at 4-1 on an assist from sophomore Elena Agosti (North Andover, Mass.), ending the scoring for the afternoon. 

The Bobcats finished the day with 17 shots (seven on goal) and held the Ducks (15-6) to eight shots, two on goal. The Bobcats earned 10 penalty corners, converting three of them for goals. They denied all three of Stevens' penalty corner chances.