MARIETTA, Ohio – The Marietta College women's lacrosse team was shut out in the  second half and dropped the Ohio Athletic Conference opener to John Carroll University, 15-3, on Saturday (March 22) afternoon.  With the win the Blue Streaks stays unbeaten at 9-0 overall and 1-0 in the OAC, and with the loss the Pioneers are now 4-6 overall and 0-1 in OAC action.  
 
"No discounting our fight today," said Marietta head coach Lindsay Reho. "I am very proud of how we battled with such a competitive team. We have a lot of conference left to clean things up and turn these results in our favor. Back to work for another test on Wednesday."
   
The Pioneers got on the board first at Mallory Wiles (Worthington, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne) scored within the first minute off of an assist from Hope Adams (Delaware, Ohio/Bishop Watterson).  John Carroll answered back with a fury as they scored on five occasions, two scores from Olivia Hanulak, over the next 13 minutes of game play.  In the final minute of the period, Wiles scored an unassisted goal the Marietta trailed 5-2 going into the second period. 
 
After the Blue Streaks scored a pair of goals to lead off the quarter, the Pioneers tried to slow the momentum with a score from Maggie Downard (Canal Fulton, Ohio/Jackson) at the 12:17 mark.  Both teams went silent over the next few minutes, but John Carroll got another score from Riley Knapp and took a 8-3 lead going into intermission. 
 
John Carroll widened the lead into the third period putting up four scores, two from Abby Cassidy.  The Pioneers could not answer and trailed 12-3 at the end of the period.  JCU added three scores in the fourth period and cruised to a 15-3 conference victory.
 
Abby May (Randolph, Ohio/St. Vincent-St. Mary) got the start and played all 60 minutes in goal for the Pioneers, she faced 37 total shots, 29 of which were on goal, and made 14 saves.  
 
Wiles led the Pioneers with those two first quarter goals. Downard led the team with six groundballs.  Izzy Lindsay and Havana Gomez (Pittsburgh, Pa./Oakland Catholic) played well defensively collecting two caused turnovers apiece.
  
The Pioneers will return to the field Wednesday (March 26) when they travel to Capital University.  The game scheduled to begin at 7 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.