WALTHAM, Mass. (Mar. 8, 2025) – Despite a team-high five points from senior Leah Hansen (Greenlawn, N.Y./Harborfields), the No. 23 Mercy University women's lacrosse team dropped a hard-fought 14-13 decision at No. 18 Bentley University on Saturday afternoon.
The Mavericks (3-2) have dropped two of their last three games and fall to the Falcons (2-2) for the second straight year.
Mercy was led by Hansen who had a team-high five points on three goals and two assists. Freshman Ashlinn Kelly (Farmingdale, N.Y./Farmingdale) had three goals and a game-high three caused turnovers and sophomore Juliana Talenti (Bethpage, N.Y./Bethpage) recorded three goals. Sophomore Riley Wallace (Islip, N.Y./Islip) added two goals, an assist and a game-high 10 draw controls. Freshman Kayden Meyer (Mastic, N.Y./William Floyd) contributed two goals and junior Emily Marino (West Babylon, N.Y./West Babylon) added two caused turnovers. Junior Olivia LaMonica (Oak Ridge, N.J./Jefferson Township) made seven saves to take the loss.
Bentley was led by Maeve Johnson who had a game-high 10 points on eight goals and two assists.
The Falcons took an early 1-0 lead less than a minute into the game before Wallace answered with a woman-up free position goal at the 12:36 mark to tie the game at 1-1. Bentley scored four straight goals to take a 5-1 lead with 5:56 remaining in the opening quarter. Back-to-back goals from Talenti and Meyer made it 5-3 before a Johnson goal at the 3:30 mark gave the hosts a 6-3 lead after the first quarter.
Bentley scored the first goal of the second quarter to take a 7-3 lead with 10:59 left in the half. Two goals from Kelly and the first of the day from Hansen made it 7-6 with 3:24 on the clock. Caitlin Keenan and Wallace traded goals to end the half, giving Bentley an 8-7 lead at halftime.
Talenti scored a woman-up goal less than a minute into the third quarter to tie the game at 8-8. Johnson and Kelly traded goals to make it 9-9 at the 7:26 mark. Johnson scored again with 3:15 on the clock to give Bentley a 10-9 lead. Meyer scored the final goal of the quarter to send the teams into the fourth quarter tied at 10-10.
Johnson scored the first goal of the fourth quarter to give the Falcons an 11-10 lead with 13:30 left. Talenti later scored to tie the game at 11-11 and Hansen recorded back-to-back goals to give Mercy a 13-11 lead with 9:34 remaining. Johnson scored two straight goals to tie the game at 13-13 with 5:19 on the clock. Amanda Davis scored the game-winning goal with 1:51 left to give Bentley a 14-13 lead. Mercy was unable to find the equalizer and Bentley earned the 14-13 win.
Bentley held a 27-25 edge in shots, a 13-8 edge in ground balls and Mercy held a 17-14 edge in draw controls.
Head Coach Dawn Sachs and the Mavericks resume action on Sunday, March 16th when they play at Tampa at 3 p.m.
