John Carroll jumped out to a 5-0 lead early and cruised to a 17-8 win over Saint Joseph's College of Maine Tuesday in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

In the first of two games for the Blue Streaks in the spring break trip, JCU wasted little time in building lead.

Brooke McQuinn got JCU on the board in the fifth minute off an assist from Alexis Guage, and then Guage scored the next two goals to push the Blue Streaks' lead to 3-0 at the 23:52 mark.

Emma Workman and Colleen Grombala followed with goals before the Monks got on the board with 13:51 left in the half.

The Blue Streaks kept up the pressure with goals from Brittany Pritchard and Alex Heishman to extend the advantage to 7-1 heading into the final 11 minutes of the half.

McQuinn scored twice more, and Colleen Grombala and Carly Ross (her first as a Blue Streak) added tallies, to put John Carroll ahead 11-4 at the break.

In the second half, the Blue Streaks outscored the Monks, 6-4. Heishman (twice), McQuinn, Workman, Claire Mezzoprete (her first as a Blue Streak), and Sophie Grabowski (her first as a Blue Streak) were responsible for the points.
 
"We were happy with how well the offense spread the scoring," said head coach Rachel Dell, as nine different players found the back of the net this afternoon. "We have been working on this all year and it was great to have so many players collect points."

JCU was dominant in the draw controls (21-7) and were a perfect 12-12 in clears while St. Joseph's was only successful half the time (12-24).

The Blue Streaks also held the advantage in ground balls (19-11) and shots (40-19).

"Defensively we were strong on denying their first look to cage and really made them work for a good shot," said Dell.  "Again, our draw controls and our full field defensive play helped us gain and control most of the possession time. We played better as a full team than we did in the first two games, it was great to get into running time."

Heishman had a strong stat line with three goals, a team-high four ground balls and three caused turnovers. McQuinn won 12 draw controls, had five points (a team-high four goals and an assist) and tied Heishman with three caused turnovers.

Elyssa Zablo and Kaleigh Kotula combined for seven saves.

JCU will take on Roanoke (3-1) on Thursday, March 7.