WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – A flurry of goals in the opening minutes set the tone as the George Mason women's lacrosse team kicked off the 2018 season triumphantly in a high-scoring affair.

The Patriots never trailed in a season-opening 17-14 victory over Monmouth on Wednesday. Junior Chachi Kelehan led the way with a five-point day, scoring four goals and dishing out an assist. Graduate student Corinne Wessels scored three goals and recorded an assist in her Mason debut, senior Lindsey Tangeman also added a career-high three goals and an assist and senior Kristin Morgan scored the first three goals of her career.

Mason (1-0) scored three goals in the opening three minutes, fought off an early Monmouth surge and led by as many as six goals in the second half. Sophomore and 2017 All-Rookie Team selection Melissa Semkiw was strong in goal, making 14 saves.

"We started strong," fourth-year head coach Jessy Morgan said. "We have a lot of veteran players on the attack that kept the game out of reach. But we are still working things out on the defense. So we took this game to try out a few different things… We have to do some tweaking on defense but it's easy to fix things when you have a goalie who can put up 14 saves."

Mason jumped out to a 3-0 lead by the 27:04 mark on goals by senior Tangeman, Wessels and Kelehan. Monmouth (0-4), answered with a run of its own, pulling within a goal, 5-4, with less than 10 minutes to go in the first half.

But the Patriots rattled off another three-minute scoring blast, this time netting four goals (two by Kelehan, one from senior captain Holly Tevis and another by Morgan) to extend the advantage to 9-4 late in the first half. The Hawks never got closer than three goals after that as Mason led by as many as six in the second half.

Tevis scored a career-high two goals in her home state of New Jersey. Sophomore Hailey Johnson, an All-Rookie Team selection, and freshman Erin Donoghue also scored. Donoghue also collected five draw controls. Senior captain Hannah Warpinski also had five draw controls, four ground balls and three caused turnovers.

The Patriots return to action in their home opener against Longwood at 2 p.m. on Saturday at George Mason Stadium.