MARIETTA, Ohio — The Marietta College women's lacrosse team had a strong second half in their final tune-up before conference play begins and defeated Wittenberg University by the score of 18-10 Wednesday (March 20) afternoon. The Pioneers are 5-3 on the season and the Tigers fall to 4-3 overall.
"Huge win for the team tonight," Marietta head coach
Malory Nadrah said. "We've had some injuries and asked people to step up in different roles in our game preparation and on the fly tonight. Each of them did tremendous and earned a hard fought, quality win. Our sideline kept high energy and helped slam the door in the 4th quarter. This momentum is critical heading into conference this weekend."
Wittenberg hit the scoreboard first as Anna Roller fired a shot within the 8-meter arc to give the Tiger the quick lead. It would take another five minutes of action before another tally was collected, but Wittenberg extended the lead to 2-0 with a score from Jessica Flick. Marietta would immediately answer as
Alayna Francis (Irwin, Pa./Norwin) would win the ensuing draw control and find
Mallory Wiles (Columbus, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne), who knifed her way into the Tiger defense and scored.
Hope Adams (Delaware, Ohio/Bishop Watterson) scored on the next possession and the teams were tied at two with 6:17 remaining in the period.
Maggie Downard (Canal Fulton, Ohio/Jackson) broke the tie with a little over three minutes left, finding the net after a great feed from
Casey Roeder (Milford, Ohio/Milford). Roller tied the game with a free position goal and both teams were tied at three going into the second period.
The Tiger wasted little time in the second period as they won the opening draw control and marched down the field, getting another score from Flick. Marietta then got a trio of scores from Adams over the next several minutes to given them a 6-4 advantage. Flick slowed the momentum for a bit with a late score, but Adams closed the half with another goal and Marietta led 7-5 going into halftime.
Wittenberg showed they still had plenty of fight in them as they got the first two goals of the second half to knot the score at seven. Marietta would then go on a five-goal run over the next six minutes to slowly begin to take control of the contest.
Jordan Jeffries (Baltimore, Md./Baltimore Polytechnic), Downard,
Sophi Merickel (Phoenix, Ariz./Cactus Shadows), and Wiles all added scores during the run. The Tigers were able to muster the last score of the period but Marietta took a 12-8 lead into the final stanza. The two teams would trade scores to begin the fourth but Wiles would go on to score four more times and the Pioneers cruised to a 18-10 victory.
Abby May (Randolph, Ohio/St. Vincent-St. Mary) played all 60 minutes in the net and had seven saves, while giving up 10 goals.
Wiles led with seven goals and Adams finished with six goals and four draw controls. Francis led the team with six draw controls.
Kyla Andreas (Shirley, N.Y./Longwood) finished with a goal, four draw controls, and three groundballs.
Marley Phillippe (Easton, Md./Easton) led with six groundballs and two caused turnovers.
"Hope and Mallory handled high pressure and executed exactly when we needed them,' concluded Nadrah. "
Delaney Warner (Columbus, Ohio/Hilliard Bradley) stepped into a crucial defensive role in the 2nd half, her effort was a huge key to the win today."
Marietta starts conference play this Saturday (Mar. 23) as they host Baldwin Wallace University with the game scheduled to begin at 1 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 X and Instagram.
