ADA, Ohio — The Marietta College women's lacrosse team held a narrow lead at the half but was outscored in a decisive final period and fell to Ohio Northern University, 18-13 on Saturday (April 13) afternoon. Marietta falls to 6-6 overall and 1-3 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. Ohio Northern is now 8-6 overall and 2-3 in the OAC.
Ohio Northern scored shortly after the collecting the opening draw control, getting a goal from Elena Martin, and then got a goal from Emma Perry at the 10:40 mark to take 2-0 lead. Marietta answered a minute later with a goal from
Hope Adams (Delaware, Ohio/Bishop Watterson) to cut the lead in half. The Pioneers traded goals with the Polar Bears over the remainder of the period, getting scores from Adams and
Mallory Wiles (Columbus, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne), and trailed 4-3 heading into the second period.
After an Ohio Northern goal to open the second quarter, the Pioneers roared back with five straight scores, two from
Maggie Downard (Canal Fulton, Ohio/Jackson) and another pair from Adams, to take a three-goal lead. The Polar Bears came back to score the next two tallies, though, and cut the Pioneer lead to 8-7 going into intermission.
The two teams traded scores throughout the third period. The Polar Bears tied it in the opening minute but Wiles answer on the next possession to regain the lead. After ONU tied it back up, Adams scored on the next possession to put the lead at 10-9. ONU scored two straight to vault them back into the lead, but
Jordan Jeffries (Baltimore, Md./Baltimore Polytechnic) tied it up at 11 at the 5:45 mark. The Polar Bear stayed in the offensive, scoring another pair of goals and taking a 13-12 lead going into the final period.
ONU extended the lead with four goals in the first eight minutes of the final period, and the Pioneers could not overcome the difference.
Sophi Merickel (Phoenix, Ariz./Cactus Shadows) added one more Pioneers score but Ohio Northern would close out a 18-13 OAC victory.
Abby May (Randolph, Ohio/St. Vincent-St. Mary) played the whole way in goal for the Pioneers and faced 28 shots on goal, making 10 saves. She now is the Pioneer all-time leader with 344 saves, passing Maddie Leers who collected 341 saves in her Pioneer career.
"I couldn't speak higher of Abby," said Marietta head coach
Malory Nadrah. "Her natural talent is coupled with an outstanding work ethic. She strives to better herself everyday for her team and I could not be more proud that she represents our program."
Adams led the scoring with five goals. Wiles, Jeffries, Downard, and Merickel all finished with two scores apiece.
Alayna Francis (Irwin, Pa./Norwin) tied with Adam for team lead with seven draw controls.
Marley Phillippe (Easton, Md./Easton) led the team with two caused turnovers.
Marietta is scheduled to battle Capital University on Wednesday (April 17) in their home finale, with a scheduled start time of 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 X and Instagram.
