MARIETTA, Ohio — The Marietta College women's lacrosse team scored early and often in their final tune-up before conference plat begin and defeated Franciscan University by the score of 17-10 Saturday (March 25) afternoon. The Pioneers are 6-3 on the season and Franciscan falls to 1-3 overall.
"Very proud of the team for an excellent finale to our non-conference slate.," Marietta head coach
Malory Nadrah said. " Everyone got a chance to contribute today and there were good things all over the field. Awesome spread of scoring and great ground ball pickups and transitions from defense. We are eager to translate this momentum into our conference play."
Marietta set the tone early with three unassisted goals in the first six minutes of the match.
Hope Adams (Delaware, Ohio/Bishop Watterson) scored from a free position shot to start the scoring.
Megan McGriff (Lakewood, Colo./Bear Creek) scored from a
Mallory Wiles (Columbus, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne) assist two minutes later. Adams scored another goal unassisted and the Pioneers had a quick 3-0 lead. The Barons fought back quickly with three goals to tie it up at the 4:19 mark. Adams scored another free position shot to put the Pioneers ahead again, but Franciscan answered as Kiera Wilson scored in the final seconds to tie it up at four going into the second period.
The Pioneers shut the Barons out in the second period while extending the lead with seven goals. Adams and McGriff scored again and Wiles added a score at the 7:40 mark to give the Pioneers a 7-4 lead. Marietta added to the lead as
Maggie Downard (Canal Fulton, Ohio/Jackson),
Kayla Godwin (Pickerington, Ohio/Pickerington Central), and
Natalie Cocco (McMurray, Pa./Peters Township) all scored in short succession to push the lead to 10-4. Wiles added one more score before the end of the period and Marietta led 11-4 going into halftime.
Marietta added to the lead as they scored twice to begin the third period.
Sophia Verona (Shinnston, W. Wa./Our Lady of Victory) scored with an assist from Wiles and Adams added to her point total with another score. The two teams would go on to trade goals for the remainder of the period and Marietta lead 15-6 going into the final period. The Barons would tack on some goals in the final period but could not make up the difference and the Pioneers cruised to a 17-10 victory.
Abby May (Randolph, Ohio/St. Vincent-St. Mary) played all 60 minutes in the net and had 13 saves, while giving up 10 goals.
Adams led with seven goals while Wiles and McGriff finished with two apiece. Makenzie Dyott returned to the lineup and scored her first goal of the season.
Kyla Andreas (Shirley, N.Y./Longwood) finished with seven draw controls and four groundballs.
Alayna Francis (Irwin, Pa./Norwin) had five draw controls on the afternoon.
Special congratulations to
Havana Gomez (Pittsburgh, Pa./Oakland Catholic) and
Catherine Martin (Greensburg, Pa./Greensburg Salem) for each picking up their first ever collegiate groundball. Coach Nadrah concluded, "I deem that like a goal for a defender."
Marietta starts conference play this Wednesday (Mar. 29) as they travel to battle Mount Union with the game scheduled to begin at 7 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.
