(New York, NY) – There are few words or phrases to describe the magnitude of the win in the larger context of the development of the Mount Saint Vincent Women's Lacrosse program other than the fact that Saturday's 15-9 triumph over Kean University was simply the biggest win in the history of the program. Two years after falling 27-4 to Kean as a club team and a year after dropping a 16-15 heartbreaker to the Cougars as a first-year varsity program, Mount Saint Vincent entered Saturday's home opener as a team on a mission to not only keep its hopes at a Skyline Conference playoff berth alive, but to earn respectability over the NJAC powerhouse and arch-nemesis of Mount Saint Vincent for the last two years. By halftime, both goals were all but reached as the Dolphins jumped out to an 8-3 lead after 30 minutes, and never looked back. With the win, the Mount improves to 4-6 overall and 1-1 in the Skyline Conference with two huge Conference games coming this week.
Mount Saint Vincent wasted little time pulling away as the opening draw produced an outstanding defensive stand, and Marie Garcia (Medford, MA/Medford HS) notched what would become her third game-winning goal of the season just over a minute into play to give the Dolphins the lead. Seven minutes later, the lead was 4-0, and with just over five minutes remaining in the first half, the Dolphins enjoyed a 7-1 advantage. After trading goals, Kean scored on a free-position shot during the final five seconds of the first half to make it an 8-3 lead at the break.
The Dolphins quickly scored the first two goals of the second half to make a 10-3 lead, and then held off several Kean attempts at a run to make things close. The closest the Cougars would get was 12-8 before the Mount scored three of the final four goals to secure the win. Garcia finished with two goals and two assists and was a huge part of the Mount's transition game that featured four fast break goals. Freshman Ciara O'Donnell (Bethpage, NY/Kellenberg) scored a career-high four goals for the second time this week and added two assists for a career high six points. The Mount was also led by a trio of hat-trick scorers as sophomores Amanda Nadhir (Bloomfield Hills, MI/Marian), Cyndi Adams (Mechanicsville, MD/Chopticon HS), and Chanel Comis (Durham, NC/Cardinal Gibbons) each found the back of the net three times. Nadhir also added an assist.
But the story of the game on the Mount Saint Vincent side was the play of the Dolphin defense. Led by freshman Alexis Balingcongan's (Glen Cove, NY/Glen Cove HS) 15 saves and an incredible effort by sophomores Michelle Yarger (Chantilly, VA/Chantilly HS), Erin Davies (Islip, NY/Islip HS), Cynthia Osorio (Oceanside, NY/Oceanside HS), and Alexis Alessi (Rockville Centre, NY/Oceanside HS), the Mount held an opponent to less than 10 goals for the fifth time in 10 games this season.
Despite a stunning 11-10 triple overtime loss to Manhattanville last Tuesday, Mount Saint Vincent is still very much in the mix for a Skyline Conference playoff berth thanks to Saturday's win. This week could go a long way in determining the Mount's post-season fate as the Dolphins host Farmingdale State on Monday at 4:00 p.m. at Wien Stadium of Columbia University and then travel to face Stevens on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m.
