HIGH POINT, N.C. - High Point downed Mount St. Mary's 12-5 in non-conference women's lacrosse action on Saturday.

Esther Rufolo (Woodstock, Md./Chapelgate Christian Academy) paced the Mount (0-4) with a goal and an assist while Lindsay Diaz (Timonium, Md./Dulaney), Kaitlyn Larrimore (Pylesville, Md./North Harford), Nicole Price (White Hall, Md./North Harford) and Jen Semler (Baltimore, Md./Perry Hall) also scored for the Mountaineers. Brigid McTavish (Mount Airy, Md./South Carroll) made seven saves in the loss.

Chelsea Thompson fueled the Panthers (3-2) with four goals and one assist. Sara Kuhlman added a hat trick and Grace Gaeng added two tallies and two helpers. Lauren Hayes made 10 saves in the winning effort.

High Point jumped out to the advantage and never looked back to take the first meeting between the two teams in program history.

The Panthers scored the first four goals of the game to grab a 4-0 lead midway throw the first half. Heather Ziccarelli got the scoring started with a free-position tally at 2:20 before Kuhlman found the back of the net off a Gaeng assist at 3:05 for a two-goal margin. Gaeng then helped Thompson score two-straight tallies when she assisted her first goal of the afternoon at 15:54 before Thompson scored unassisted at 16:13 to increase the advantage to 4-0.

Mount St. Mary's rallied to score the next two goals to trim the margin to 4-2. Semler notched her first goal of the year at 17:30 before Rufolo connected with Larrimore 25 seconds later to make it a two-goal game.

After Gaeng found the back of the net off a helper from Ashleigh Kassab at 27:57, Kuhlman scored unassisted with eight seconds left in the first stanza to hand High Point a 6-2 lead.

Thompson completed her hat trick by scoring the first tally of the second half on an 8-meter goal to hand the Panthers a 7-2 advantage at 33:59.

The Mountaineers rallied with two-straight goals to trim the margin to 7-4. Rufolo notched her fifth goal of the season on a free-position marker at 36:06 before Price found the twine for the fifth time in 2011 unassisted at 40:24.

After Thompson answered for High Point unassisted at 42:48, Diaz converted an 8-meter opportunity at 47:51 to trim the deficit to 8-5. Thompson then set up Gaeng at 54:52 to increase the margin to 9-5. Alex Perry found the twine twice and Kuhlman scored once in the final 80 seconds to seal the victory.

Diaz, Aly Jost (Abington, Md./Bel Air) and Mary MacAdam (Palmyra, N.J./Holy Cross) paced the defense with four ground balls apiece. Jost also had a team-high two caused turnovers to move into 10th place in program history with 71 career caused miscues. Rufolo grabbed seven draw controls to move into ninth place with 82 career draw controls.

Mount St. Mary's returns to action at Longwood on Tuesday. Game time is 4 p.m.