DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Mar. 19, 2022) – Powered by the game-winning goal from senior Juliana Keenan (Bethpage, N.Y./Plainedge) and a season-high 12 saves from senior Madeline Garvalosa (Seaford, N.Y./St. Anthony's), the No. 12 Mercy College women's lacrosse team earned an 11-9 victory over No. 14 Bentley University on Saturday afternoon at Mercy Field.
The Mavericks (5-2) have won three games in a row, while the Falcons (2-1) suffer their first loss of the season.
Keenan had a game-high five points on a game-high three goals with two assists. Senior Taylor Bishop (West Milford, N.J./West Milford) also had three goals and graduate student Briana Corace (Mahopac, N.Y./Mahopac) had two goals. Senior Kerri Cummings (Islip, N.Y./Islip) had a game-high three assists and senior Kaitlyn Grzelaczyk (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford), junior Erin Shimborske (Farmingdale, N.Y./Adelphi University) and sophomore Kelly Rosenfeld (Massapequa, N.Y./Massapequa) also scored. Senior Micayla Brady (Massapequa Park, N.Y./Massapequa) had a team-high-tying four caused turnovers and a game-high-tying four ground balls. Brady now has a school-record 117 career caused turnovers in just 46 games, surpassing the previous record of 116 set by Talia Stagnitta in 2020. Freshman Lindsey Shimborske (Farmingdale, N.Y./Farmingdale) added four caused turnovers and three ground balls and senior Hunter Savino (Holtsville, N.Y./Sachem East) had three caused turnovers. Garvalosa made a game-high 12 saves to earn the win.
Bentley was led by Glenna Gies who had a team-high three points on two goals and one assist. Maya Rose made six saves to take the loss.
The game remained scoreless until the 12:15 mark of the first quarter when Rosenfeld scored, off an assist from Keenan, to make it 1-0. Amanda Davis scored a free position goal with 6:37 left in the quarter to tie the game at 1-1. Keenan netted her first goal of the game on a free position shot with 3:49 remaining in the quarter to give Mercy a 2-1 lead. Corace concluded the scoring in the quarter, giving the Mavericks a 3-1 lead after one quarter of play.
Grzelaczyk gave Mercy a 4-1 lead with 13 minutes left in the half after a free position goal. Bentley scored the next two goals to make it 4-3 with 7:55 on the clock. Bishop struck back with back-to-back goals to put Mercy up 6-3 with 2:18 left in the half. A Caroline Affolter goal before halftime cut the Mavericks lead to 6-4 at halftime.
Corace and Erin Shimborske recorded two straight goals to give the Mavericks their largest lead of the game, 8-4, with 11:57 left in the third quarter. The Falcons followed with three straight goals to cut Mercy's lead to one, 8-7, at the 2:23 mark. Bishop tallied her final goal of the day just over a minute later to put Mercy up, 9-7, after three quarters.
Bentley opened the fourth quarter with consecutive goals to tie the game at 9-9 with six minutes left. Keenan gave the Mavericks the lead for good with her second goal of the game with 4:28 on the clock following a pass from Cummings, which gave Mercy a 10-9 lead. Grzelaczyk won the ensuing draw control and Cummings found Keenan again just over 30 seconds later to put the Mavericks up, 11-9, with 3:54 remaining in the game. Mercy's defense held the Falcons off the scoreboard for the final few minutes, giving the Mavericks a win over nationally-ranked Bentley.
Bentley held a 26-20 edge in shots and a 14-10 edge in draw controls. Mercy held a 22-20 edge in ground balls.
Head Coach Dawn Sachs and the Mavericks resume action on Saturday, March 26th when they host UDC at 12 p.m.
