NEW CONCORD, Ohio – The Marietta College women's lacrosse team scored 15 unanswered goals and kept Muskingum University scoreless in the second half, claiming a 23-8 victory on Wednesday (April 10). With the win the Pioneers improve to 6-6 overall, 1-2 in Ohio Athletic Conference play. With the loss the Muskies fall to 7-6, 0-4 in the OAC.
The game was originally supposed to be played at Marietta Field, but due to the recent flooding in the area and the subsequent necessary clean-up efforts, the game was moved to Muskingum. Despite the switch, the Pioneers handled the news well.
"We faced a lot of adversity this week with our field situation," said Head Coach
Malory Nadrah. "The team had such great attitudes with our predicament as we prepared for tonight. Credit to Muskingum for a hot start but our team hung on and then blasted out of the gates in the second half. Offense and the draw personnel exploded and our defense made key adjustments to shut them out. Fantastic first conference win of the year."
The Muskies got off to a quick start as they got goals from Riley Hudock and Kasi Tulli to take a 2-0 lead six minutes into the contest. The Pioneers finally got on the board on the very next possession as
Hope Adams (Delaware, Ohio/Bishop Watterson) captured the draw control, marched down the field, and fired a shot right into the goal. Marietta then tied it up with less than six minutes left as
Jordan Jeffries (Baltimore, Md./Baltimore Polytechnic) caused a turnover close to the Muskingum goal, picked up the groundball, and fired a shot in to tie the game at two.
Mallory Wiles (Columbus, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne) scored on the next possession and Adams added another goal a minute later to give the Pioneers a 4-2 lead. The Muskies rallied for the remainder part of the quarter with a trio of goals, two from Hudock, and Marietta trailed 5-4 going into the second period.
After both teams battled for the first two minutes of the second period, Marietta finally broke through another goal from Wales to tie the contest up at five. Muskingum answered with a free position goal from Hannah Heyboer, but Adams answered with a score on the next possession. After some traded scores, Marietta closed the half with a trio of scores, two from Wiles and one from
Renee Mulvaney (Midland, Mich./Midland), and took an 11-8 lead into the half.
The Pioneers kept the offense flowing in the third period, outscoring the Muskies 8-0 in the third. The Pioneer attack was fueled by five Wiles goals while Adams,
Jordan Jeffries (Baltimore, Md./Baltimore Polytechnic), and
Casey Roeder (Milford, Ohio/Milford) added their names to the score sheet with a goal apiece. Marietta scored four more times in the fourth period and cruised to a 23-8 OAC victory.
Abby May (Randolph, Ohio/St. Vincent-St. Mary) played 51 minutes in the net for the Pioneers and faced 18 shots on goal and made 10 saves.
Wiles led all scorers with 11 goals, breaking the Marietta program record. She assisted on two other scores, giving her 13 points in the match, also a program record. Adams scored six goals and Jeffries finished with three goals. Jeffries also picked up four groundballs, tying with
Marley Phillippe (Easton, Md./Easton) and
Kyla Andreas (Shirley, N.Y./Longwood) for team lead. Adams tied with
Sarah Imig (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield Central) with a team-leading six draw controls. Jeffries also caused two turnovers.
"Abby had another great game, she made huge stops and made tremendous impact being active. Mallory had a terrific game not just scoring but hustling like a fiend in the ride," concluded Coach Nadrah.
The Pioneers will travel to Ohio Northern University this Saturday (April 13). The game is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
Fans can follow all of 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.
