MARIETTA, Ohio – The Marietta College women's lacrosse team dropped a hard fought battle with Franciscan University, 13-12 on Wednesday (Feb. 27). With the win the Barons improve to 2-0 and the Pioneers fall to 0-3 on the season.
Head Coach
Malory Brunett said, "I am very proud of the team for the game tonight. We have shown great improvement again. Franciscan played a tremendous game and I am very happy that our players were able to hang with their talent and intensity down to a one goal difference."
Franciscan opened the scoring three minutes into the game with an unassisted goal. Three minutes later Marietta tied the game when
Sarah Stutler (Park Hills, Ky./Notre Dame Acdemy) scored the first ever Pioneer goal on Marietta Field.
After the Barons grabbed a 3-1 edge, Marietta cut the advantage to 3-2 when
Rachel Sivie (Washington, Pa./Trinity) scored an unassisted goal with 18:21 minutes to play in the opening half.
Franciscan rattled off three straight goals and took a 6-2 lead with six and a half minutes to play in the first half. The Pioneers answered back with a pair of goals from
Shelby Millheim (Bethlehem, Pa. /Freedom) and
Faith Campbell (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills Senior ), and the score was 6-4 in favor of the Barons.
After three and half minutes of scoreless action, the teams swapped goals to end the half, with
Carlee Kernodle (Oak Park, Ill./Oak Park) finding the back of the net for Marietta. The Pioneers entered the intermission behind, 7-5.
Franciscan came out of the locker room ready to play, as they scored a pair of goals in the first five minutes of the second half, to stretch out a 9-5 advantage. Kernodle halted the Barons run, when she scored her second goal of the game off a feed from
Jessica Hill (Woodsfield, Ohio/Ohio Virtual Acdemy).
After a Franciscan goal with 22 minutes to play in the half, Marietta fought back with three consecutive goals, to make the score 10-9 in favor of the Barons. Stutler scored a pair of goals and Millheim added the other goal.
Franciscan regained a 12-9 edge with just under eight minutes to play with back to back goals. A
Delaney Djuric (Farmington Hills, Mich./North Farmington) goal trimmed the Barons edge to two, before a Franciscan goal with five minutes to play put them up, 13-10.
The Pioneers held the Barons scoreless for the final five minutes of the game. Millheim brought Marietta within one goal, as she scored back to back goals, and Marietta trailed 13-12 with just over a minute to play. The Pioneers could not complete the comeback and fell, 13-12.
Marietta was led by Millheim as she scored four goals, picked up six ground balls, caused a pair of turnovers, and won a draw control. Stutler added three goals, and picked up five ground balls for the Pioneers. Kernodle had a game high eight draw controls and scored a pair of goals for Marietta.
In net for the Pioneers was
Maddie Leers (Crystal Lake, Ill. /Barrington), she faced 25 shots total shots, 20 of which were on goal, and made seven saves.
"Our scoring was spread across 6 players. Lots of people stepped up when they needed to which allowed us to hang with an experienced team. Despite the loss, we again have proved significant and quick improvement. Our win is just around the corner," concluded Coach Brunett.
Marietta will be back in action Saturday (March 2) when they travel to take on Hiram College, with the game scheduled to start at 12 p.m.
Fans can follow all the Pioneer teams all year long at pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on Twitter and Instagram.
