Warriors Lacrosse drops weekend matchups with Mercyhurst, Gannon

By Ronald Hanaki

SC Staff Writer

On Friday, March 28, ESU’s women’s lacrosse team suffered a 12-7 defeat at the hands of the Mercyhurst Lakers on a soggy Whitenight Field.

This was the second consecutive loss for the Warriors after opening the season a perfect 6-0.

ESU held leads early in the game at 2-0 and 4-2, but Mercyhurst came back to tie the game at 4-4.

Mercyhurst took the lead for the first time – and as it turned out, for good – when Mercyhurst senior midfielder Anna LeGrett found the back of the net with 1:06 left in the first half.

The score was 5-4 Mercyhurst at halftime.

Mercyhurst opened the second half of the game with four consecutive goals to consolidate their lead at 9-4.

The Warriors returned the favor by scoring three consecutive goals to make it 9-7, but the Lakers answered back with three consecutive goals of their own to make the final score 12-7 and end ESU’s hopes for a come-from-behind win.

ESU sophomore attacker Kaitlynn Wiltraut led the Warriors in scoring with 4 goals on 6 shots-on-goal, but her teammates struggled to score.

ESU sophomore attacker Lauren Nunes went 1-8, and sophomore midfielder Annastasia Porpora, went 0 for 4 with her shots on goal.

ESU senior midfielder Nicole Miller went 1-4 with her shots-on-goal and went to the ground with an apparent right leg injury just before the end of the first half.

Miller was called for a foul and was assessed a yellow card on the play.

Although she was on the sideline at the beginning of the second half, she was able to shrug off the injury and went right back in the game a few minutes into the second half.

Mercyhurst was led by junior attacker Jenna Schlagenhauf who scored 5 goals on 6 shots, and her Mercyhurst teammate Mackenzie Jordan was a perfect 3 for 3 with her shots-on-goal with 2 assists.

Overall team statistics were fairly even. ESU had 28 shots on goal, and Mercyhurst had 27 shots on goal. ESU had 22 turnovers to Mercyhurst’s 20 turnovers.

The difference was in the amount of free position shots. ESU had 11 free position shots to only 3 for Mercyhurst. That would normally indicate an advantage for ESU, but the Warriors were not able to take full advantage – scoring only 3 goals from their 11 free position shots. Comparatively, Mercyhurst had just 3 free position shots and scored only once.

On the other hand, Mercyhurst held the statistical advantage in ground balls with 25 to ESU’s 20.

ESU fell to 6-2 on the season and 1-2 in PSAC conference play.

On a rainy Saturday afternoon, March 29, the Warriors lost to Gannon’s Golden Knights 15-9 in a PSAC conference game at ESU’s Whitenight Field.

Warrior sophomore attacker Kaitlynn Wiltraut notched another hat trick with three goals in the loss.

ESU freshman Malloree Mason replaced starting goalkeeper and redshirt freshman Jessica Maxwell in goal for the last four minutes of the game.

ESU’s Emily Fitzsimmons, Lauren Green, and Nicole Miller all picked up yellow cards in the game.

The Warriors fell to 6-3 overall and 1-3 in PSAC conference play. The women’s lacrosse team will hit the road to face IUP on Saturday, April 5.

Email Ronald at:

rhanaki@live.esu.edu