The St. Lawrence University women's lacrosse team ran into a buzz saw on Friday afternoon, as Rensselaer opened the game with seven straight goals en route to an impressive 18-4 victory in Troy, NY. Rookie Kiera Taussig led the Saints with two goals in the league loss.

The loss coupled with an overtime win by Vassar has eliminated St. Lawrence (6-8, 4-4) from postseason contention. Meanwhile, Rensselaer (10-4, 8-0) has clinched the 2014 Liberty League regular season title and will host the Brewers in the conference semifinals.

Taussig's two goals were combined with tallies from both Kara Hurley and Chloe Knapp for St. Lawrence, while Regina Rogers finished with a team-high four ground balls. Addie Cunningham made eight saves in goal. Rensselaer was led by Meg Colitz's huge outing, as she matched her season-high with nine points on six goals and three assists. Michelle Denny and Erin Masucci each added hat tricks and Erin Amarello and Heather MacLauchlan combined for five saves to keep RPI unbeaten in the conference.

The Engineers jumped out to a big 7-0 lead in the first 15:50 of the opening half. Masucci opened the scoring 1:24 into regulation, which kick-started the big run which included four goals in a span of 3:02. Colitz scored three straight goals for a 5-0 lead, before Masucci and Denny followed only 11 seconds apart for the seven-goal cushion.

Knapp's 15th goal of the year finally got St. Lawrence on the board with 2:03 left in the half. However, Jamie Wakefield trumped any momentum the visitors hoped to build with a goal with one second remaining in the period for an 8-1 Engineer lead at intermission.

Rensselaer continued to pull away early in the second half, scoring four of the first five goals to stretch the advantage to 10 at 12-2. Taussig, who scored midway through the period, added her second goal with 12:02 remaining to make it 12-3 before Hurley took a pass from Emma Garfield and scored her fifth goal of the season to make it 12-4. However, RPI tacked on six goals in the final 9:23 of regulation for the decisive 18-4 win.

The home team finished with advantages in shots (32-14), free position shots (10-3), ground balls (21-19) and draw controls (16-6).

The Saints will complete the 2014 regular season tomorrow, Saturday, April 26 when they face Skidmore in Saratoga Springs, NY at 3:00pm.