PITTSBURGH, Pa. — The Marietta College women's lacrosse team dropped their final non-conference matchup of the season as they fell to Chatham University on the road, 17-8, Wednesday (March 19) evening. The Pioneers drop to 4-5 on the season, while the Cougars improve to 2-3 overall.

"Tough outing today," said Marietta head coach Lindsay Reho. "The true test comes tomorrow on how we respond. We have a whole season ahead of us with conference coming up and this team is capable of great things. It's time for us to decide what we want the rest of the season to look like and go out and earn it."

The Cougars and Pioneers battled throughout the first four minutes with no offense but Chatham finally broke through with a score as Kaya Miller converted a free position shot.  Marietta tied it up two minutes later as Mallory Wiles (Worthington, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne) scored an unassisted goal.  The Cougars won the ensuing draw control and marched immediately down the field to score the go-ahead goal.  Late in the period, Chatham tacked on another quick trio of goals to push the lead to four. Molly Dickens (Centerville, Ohio/Centerville) slowed the momentum as she scored from the eight-meter line and the Pioneers trail 5-2 going into the second period.

The Pioneers cut into the lead at the 12:40 mark of the second period as Sophi Merickel (Phoenix, Ariz./Cactus Shadows) scored off of a pass from Maggie Downard (Canal Fulton, Ohio/Jackson), but it took another six minutes to see more offense.   Chatham got a score Tessa Heuber, but Marietta answered quickly as Merickel scored on a free position shot.  After Heuber scored again, Hope Adams (Delaware, Ohio/Bishop Watterson) broke through with an unassisted score at the 2:40 mark to keep the deficit at two scores.  Bailey Donofrio added a goal in the final minute and Chatham led 8-5 going into intermission.

In the third period, Chatham took control and pushed the lead out to six as they spread out a trio of scores over the first half of the period.  Adams put up a goal for the Pioneers with seven minutes remaining and then scored a free position goal with less than two left but Marietta would trail 12-7 going into the final quarter.

Marietta could generate one score in the final period as Merickel scored off of an Adams assist, but the Cougars poured it on with four more tallies and would go on to the 17-8 victory.

Abby May (Randolph, Ohio/St. Vincent-St. Mary) played all 60 minutes in the net for the Pioneers.  She faced 39 shots, 31 which were on goal, and made 14 saves.
 
Adams and Merickel led the Pioneers with three goals apiece.  Adams led with two caused turnovers and Merickel collected four draw controls.  Alayna Francis (Irwin, Pa./Norwin) led the Pioneers with six draw controls.
 
Marietta will begin the OAC portion of their schedule this Saturday (March 22) as they host John Carroll University with a scheduled 1 p.m. start.

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.