DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Feb. 19, 2025) – Powered by a game-high seven points from senior Leah Hansen (Greenlawn, N.Y./Harborfields) and a game-high five caused turnovers and eight draw controls from senior Lindsey Shimborske (Farmingdale, N.Y./Farmingdale), the Mercy University women's lacrosse team opened their 2025 season with a convincing 15-3 win over Georgian Court University on Wednesday afternoon at Mercy Field.
The Mavericks (1-0) win their season opener for the 12th time in 13 seasons and improve to 9-1 all-time against the Lions (1-1).
Mercy was led by Hansen who had a game-high five goals and two assists. Sophomore Riley Wallace (Islip, N.Y./Islip) had a career-high-tying four goals with three draw controls and freshman Ashlinn Kelly (Farmingdale, N.Y./Farmingdale) scored three goals in her collegiate debut with two caused turnovers. Freshman Marena Morales (Tolland, Conn./Tolland) finished with two goals and an assist in her collegiate debut and junior Maeghan Callow (Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) had a goal, three caused turnovers and a game-high six ground balls. Sophomore Juliana Talenti (Bethpage, N.Y./Bethpage) dished out an assist and junior Emily Marino (West Babylon, N.Y./West Babylon) had a career-high four caused turnovers with four ground balls. Junior Rita-Marie Masi (Ronkonkoma, N.Y./Connetquot) added two caused turnovers and junior Olivia LaMonica (Oak Ridge, N.J./Jefferson Township) played the first three quarters with five saves to earn the win. Sophomore Olivia Bradley (East Northport, N.Y./Commack) played the first 7:51 of the fourth quarter in goal and freshman Liz Byrne (North Babylon, N.Y./North Babylon) played the final 7:09 in goal making her first collegiate save.
Georgian Court was led by Nena Menard who had a team-high two goals. Cadence Gentile made a game-high 14 saves to take the loss.
The game remained scoreless until the 9:55 mark of the first quarter when Wallace scored a woman-down goal to give Mercy a 1-0 lead. Morales made it 2-0 with under a minute to play in the quarter, off a Talenti assist, and the Mavericks headed into the second quarter up, 2-0.
Hansen scored her first goal of the day just over a minute into the second quarter to give Mercy a 3-0 lead. Morales made it 4-0 at the 11:54 mark before a Caitlin Petrellese goal got the Lions on the scoreboard, making it 4-1. A woman-up goal from Hansen gave Mercy a 5-1 lead before back-to-back Wallace goals increased the Mavericks lead to six, 7-1, leading to a Lions timeout with 5:49 left in the half. Kelly scored her first career goal with 3:10 remaining in the half to make it 8-1 and Hansen recorded the final goal of the quarter, giving Mercy a 9-1 lead at halftime.
Back-to-back goals from Callow and Hansen to open the third quarter gave Mercy an 11-1 lead with 6:08 left in the quarter. A Menard goal ended the Mavericks 7-0 run and made it 11-2 at the 2:26 mark. Hansen scored a free position goal at the end of the quarter to give Mercy a 12-2 lead after three quarters.
Menard scored the Lions final goal of the game with 12:54 left to make it 12-3. Two goals from Kelly and another from Wallace made it 15-3 in favor of Mercy with 25 seconds left. The Mavericks cruised the rest of the way to earn the 15-3 season-opening win.
Mercy held a 32-12 edge in shots, a 21-11 edge in ground balls and a 12-7 edge in draw controls.
Head Coach Dawn Sachs and the Mavericks resume action on Wednesday, February 26th when they play at New Haven at 4 p.m.
