COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Behind a 10-2 halftime lead, the Ursinus College women's lacrosse team cruised to an 18-4 victory over Albright College on Wednesday evening from Patterson Field.
It marks as their first season opening victory since a 15-13 decision over Cabrini University back in February of 2017. Senior Gabreille Liott (three goals), juniors
Grace Lynch (three goals),
Maeve Leonzi (three goals), and
Julia McCann (three goals, two assists) paced the offense with hat tricks, as a total eight Bears found the back of the net in the victory. Sophomore
Ashley Noto and senior
Mary Michaud netted two goals apiece, while first-year
Dana DeSiato scored her first collegiate goal and collected two assists.
On defense, Noto and senior
Julie Cherneskie tallied three caused turnovers a piece with sophomore netminder
Camille Hubbs earned her first collegiate victory behind one save over 60 minutes of action. Meanwhile for Albright, Caelainn Morrison suffered the loss after collecting six saves in 41 minutes of play.
Albright jumped on the scoreboard first with a goal at the 13:52-mark, before Ursinus closed out the first stanza on a 4-0 run to regain the momentum. The Bears first goal of the season came from McCann during a free-position opportunity with 10:03 remaining in the period. McCann sprinted past the Lions defense before sending her shot over the head of the Albright netminder to tie the score at one apiece. Shortly after during a woman-down situation, Lynch tallied her first goal of the season to give Ursinus a 2-1 advantage. During a fast-break chance, Lynch spun past defender before sending a bouncing shot into the back of the net with 8:35 to play in the first quarter. Next, Leonzi scored a pair of goals within a minute of each other to give Ursinus a three-goal advantage heading into the second period. Leonzi's first goal came on a free-position opportunity, before splitting two defenders and finding the nylon for her second goal of the game.
Albright quickly answered during the opening minute of the second period with a goal from Zoe Dicks to cut the Bears lead to two at the 14:30-mark. Ursinus responded shortly after as Noto tallied back-to-back goals to stretch the Bears lead to 6-2 with 11:59 remaining in the half. Noto's first goal came from behind the cage as she made a move past her defender creating a one-on-one opportunity with the Lions netminder. Shortly after, McCann found Noto about seven yards from the cage, and she fired a shot towards the top shelf for her second goal of the contest. Under a minute later, McCann found senior
Mary Michaud who juked her defender and fired a shot past the Lions goaltender to stretch the Bears lead to 7-2. McCann, Lynch, and Michaud each scored again to close out the first half on a 3-0 run and give Ursinus a 10-2 halftime lead.
Each teams traded scoring opportunities to open the second half, before Ursinus poured on four straight tallies to increase their lead to 15-3 with 3:55 to play in the quarter. Leonzi, Lynch, McCann, and Liott each found the back of the cage, while sophomore
Renee Washart scored her first goal of the season to cap off the run. DeSiato found Washart cutting towards the crease and after receiving the pass she found space between four Albright defenders to capture the goal. Ursinus closed out the third and fourth quarter on a 3-1 run to capture the 18-4 nonconference victory.
Ursinus held a 29-11 advantage in shot attempts while earning a clear percentage of 84.6% (11-of-13) and forcing Albright to a clear percentage of just 21.4% (3-of-14). The Bears tallied a 22-14 edge in ground balls and forced a total of 23 Albright turnovers.
The Bears return to action on Saturday, February 24
th as they travel to Glassboro, New Jersey for a non-conference matchup against Rowan University at 1 p.m.
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