Greenville, S.C. – The Furman women's lacrosse team was handed its first conference loss of the season in a 17-4 decision to the Mercer Bears on Saturday afternoon at Paladin Stadium.
Furman drops to 3-6 on the season and 3-1 in Big South play while Mercer improves to 8-3 overall and 4-0 in the conference.
Anna Roser scored a team high two goals and added one assist to lead the Paladins offensively.
Sophie Shaw and
Molly Faul both contributed one goal.
Hannah Dintino dished out one assist.
Lauren Farber recorded seven draws, five ground balls and four caused turnovers.
Sophia Buzelis caused three turnovers and Dintino and
Meagan Beal each had two ground balls. In goal,
Lily Rathbun made four saves and picked up four ground balls.
Hailey Rhatigan tallied seven goals for the Bears with Shannon Urey contributing an additional six and an assist. Chloe Schaefer and Lyndsey Lewis each had one goal and one assist. Maddi Koury and Erin Degnan both scored one goal. Degnan won six draws and Haley Gerold registered four ground balls. Iseabal Cryne had eight saves in goal while picking up four ground balls.
Rhatigan contributed the first two goals of the game for Mercer, the first coming unassisted and the second on a free position attempt. The Bears took a 6-0 lead after scoring four goals in the second quarter with Urey scoring twice and Degnan and Rhatigan each contributing one. Roser, with an assist from Dintino, gave Furman its first goal to make the score 6-1 with 8:39 left in the quarter. Urey then scored again for the Bears from a free position attempt but was answered with another unassisted goal from Roser. Mercer scored with 2:02 left in the second quarter on Rhatigan's free position attempt to make the score 8-2. Faul then scored her first career goal for the Paladins which was answered with Urey's fourth of the game on a last-second shot which made the score 9-3 at halftime
The Bears continued to control the game in the second half, scoring eight of the nine goals. Rhatigan struck first to make the score 10-3 with 13:41 left in the third quarter. Lewis then scored before Rhatigan, Urey and Schaefer made the score 14-3 to end the third quarter. Urey, Rhatigan, and Koury each contributed a goal in the fourth quarter before Shaw scored for the Paladins with 15 seconds left in the game to put the final score at 17-4.
Furman concluded the game with 20 shots and 20 ground balls while holding a 13-10 advantage in draws.
The Paladins are back at home on Wednesday, April 13 to host Radford at 6 p.m.
