Newburgh, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Women's Lacrosse team suffered its first home loss of the season on Thursday afternoon, falling to local foe Vassar 15-10. Junior Katie Gattoni (Old Tappan, N.J.) led the Knights with five points, while senior Claire Duffy (Monroe, N.Y.) caused seven turnovers.
 
Mount Saint Mary opened the scoring in the game when Shannon McGuinness (Oceanside, N.Y.) potted her 12^th goal of the season just over two minutes into the contest to give the Knights an early one goal advantage.
 
After falling behind by a goal, Vassar ripped off the next four tallies to open a three goal lead, with Kim Mulvehill tallying three times, including twice with a man advantage.
 
Mount Saint Mary climbed back to within 4-3 with back-to-back goals from Duffy and Gattoni and went on to score three of the final four goals of the half to head into the intermission tied 6-6. Duffy, Makayla Caso (Highland, N.Y.) and Gattoni all scored in the last 3:14 to even the game after 30 minutes.
 
At the break, Vassar held a 17-11 edge in shots and a 15-8 advantage in groundballs. The Knights finished the opening stanza with seven draw control wins out of 13 contested.
 
The two teams would alternate goals to open the second stanza, but following a Christina Ryan (Franklin Square, N.Y.) marker early in the period, the Brewers ran off the next six goals to open a commanding 13-7 lead. Isabelle Goldstein and Storm Sideleau each scored twice over the run for Vassar.
 
Gattoni stopped a 12 minute scoring drought for the Knights with her 26^th goal of the season with just over 12 minutes left in the contest and added her team leading 27^th of the season with just over three minutes left in regulation time.
 
Gattoni added an assist to her four goals to finish off the game with five points, adding a groundball and a caused turnover. Duffy potted three goals for the Mount and picked up six groundballs to go along with seven caused turnovers. Duffy also won nine of the team's 11 draw controls in the game.
 
Senior Jen Gries (Hicksville, N.Y.) collected two assists in the game for the Knights and freshman Maggie Pedersen (Glasco, N.Y.) closed out a strong game with six groundballs and three caused turnovers. Amanda Clemens (Baldwin, N.Y.) added three caused turnovers and Ryan chipped in a goal, an assist and a pair of caused turnovers.
 
Vassar was led by four goals and six points from both Mulvehill and Sideleau, while Goldstein scored three times and assisted on three others. Olivia O'Laughlin picked up four groundballs and won seven draw controls and five Brewers caused a pair of turnovers on the day.
 
Freshman Amanda Picillo (Valley Stream, N.Y.) rounded out the day with 10 saves in goal, reaching double-figures in saves for the third straight contest. Kristin Caolo picked up the win for Vassar with seven stops.
 
Vassar closed the day with a 34-19 advantage in shots, including a 25-17 edge in shots on goal. The Brewers won the groundball battle 29-21 and finished with a 16-11 edge in draw controls.
 
Thursday's loss drops Mount Saint Mary to 4-3 overall on the season. Next up for the Knights is a non-conference road game at Ramapo on March 30. Opening Draw with the Roadrunners is scheduled for 4:00 p.m.

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