SPARKILL, N.Y. (Apr. 30, 2022) – Powered by a team-high six points from senior Juliana Keenan (Bethpage, N.Y./Plainedge), the No. 15 Mercy College women's lacrosse team earned a 21-9 win over ECC foe St. Thomas Aquinas College on Saturday afternoon at Spartan Field.
The Mavericks (12-4, 6-0 ECC) end the regular season with six straight wins and are ECC Regular Season Champions for the third straight season. Mercy has earned the top seed in next week's ECC Championship and will host No. 4 seed D'Youville in a Semifinal matchup on Thursday, May 5th at 1 p.m. The Spartans (4-9, 2-4 ECC) end their season with two straight losses.
Keenan had a game-high five goals with one assist and now has 100 career points. Senior Kaitlyn Grzelaczyk (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford) had three goals and two assists and graduate student Briana Corace (Mahopac, N.Y./Mahopac) had three goals. Senior Kerri Cummings (Islip, N.Y./Islip) had two goals and two assists and senior Taylor Bishop (West Milford, N.J./West Milford) and freshman Leena Moussa (Wantagh, N.Y./Wantagh) both had two goals. Freshman Leah Hansen (Greenlawn, N.Y./Harborfields) had a goal and an assist and sophomores Christina Lopreato (Mahopac, N.Y./Mahopac) and Ally Schreck (Miller Place, N.Y./Miller Place) both scored a goal. Freshman Lindsey Shimborske (Farmingdale, N.Y./Farmingdale) scored her first collegiate goal and had an assist, four ground balls and one caused turnover. Sophomore Kelly Rosenfeld (Massapequa, N.Y./Massapequa) dished out an assist and senior Madeline Garvalosa (Seaford, N.Y./St. Anthony's) made a season-high 15 saves in 54:42 minutes of action to earn the win.
STAC was led by Danielle Cajou who had a game-high seven points on four goals and three assists. Jennifer Stevens made 10 saves to take the loss.
The Spartans jumped out to a 2-0 lead with 11:19 left in the first quarter. The Mavericks quickly answered with four straight goals to take a 4-2 lead with 9:38 on the clock. Lopreato and Keenan scored to tie the game and Corace netted back-to-back goals to give Mercy a two-goal lead. Cajou made it 4-3 at the 9:15 mark. Bishop, Keenan, Hansen, Grzelaczyk and Cummings rattled off five straight goals to make it 9-3 and Cummings scored the final goal of the quarter with 46 seconds left to give Mercy a 10-3 lead after one quarter.
Grzelaczyk and Bishop scored the first two goals of the second quarter to put Mercy up, 12-3. Leanna Iobbi made it 12-4 before Corace recorded her third goal of the day to make it 13-4. Cajou later made it 13-5 before Shimborske found the back of the net for the first time in her career at the 8:33 mark to give Mercy a 14-5 lead. Keenan made it 15-5 before the Spartans scored the final two goals of the half to cut Mercy's lead to 15-7 at halftime.
Grzelaczyk opened the scoring in the third quarter to make it 16-7 and Keenan followed with two straight goals to put the Mavericks up 18-7 with 10:22 left in the quarter. The score remained 18-7 heading into the fourth quarter.
Moussa scored the first two goals of the fourth quarter to put the Mavericks up 20-7 with 11:44 remaining. The Spartans scored the next two goals to make it 20-9 before Schreck finished off the win with a goal at the 1:51 mark to give Mercy the 21-9 win.
Mercy held a 38-30 edge in shots and a 20-17 edge in ground balls.
