Old Westbury, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Women's Lacrosse team dropped its third straight one goal decision on Wednesday following a hard fought 9-8 road loss at league rival Old Westbury. Senior Jen Gries (Hicksville, N.Y.) led the scoring attack with three goals for the Knights.
 
Mount Saint Mary methodically built a 5-0 advantage over the first 19:32 of the contest, with Gries scoring twice in 63 seconds to give the Mount an early 3-0 advantage with 17:57 left in the opening stanza. Junior Katie Gattoni (Old Tappan, N.J.) scored twice and Amanda Clemens (Baldwin, N.Y.) chipped in a goal over the opening run for the Knights.
 
The Mount held Old Westbury off the board until the 7:42 mark of the first half, before allowing three goals in a four minute stretch to slice the Mount Saint Mary lead to 5-3. Senior Shannon McGuinness (Oceanside, N.Y.) gave the Knights back a three goal advantage with 2:38 left before halftime to send the Knights to the intermission leading 6-3.
 
Despite leading by three goals at the break, Mount Saint Mary was outshot in the opening frame 18-9 and saw the Panthers hold a 16-14 edge in groundballs and a 6-4 advantage in draw controls. Freshman goalie Amanda Picillo (Valley Stream, N.Y.) made nine stops in the first half for the Mount.
 
Gries opened the scoring early in the second half with her third goal of the game to give the Mount a four goal edge, but the Knights would go nearly 10 minutes before finding the back of the net again in the second half.
 
Old Westbury ripped off three straight goal to get back to within a goal and after Catherine Ferris (Staten Island, N.Y.) ended the Knights' long scoring drought, the Panthers tied the score at 8-8 with 7:25 left and got the game winning tally from Danielle Weir with just shy of three minutes left in regulation time.
 
The Knights were held to two goals on just six shots with Gries and Ferris accounting for the only scoring in the second half for the Knights. Mount Saint Mary was outshot 11-6 in the second 30 minutes.
 
Gries rounded out the game with three markers and a helper, scoring a free-position goal and winning a draw control. Gattoni potted two goals and assisted on a third, adding a draw control. Clemens finished the game with a goal and an assist, chipping in with three groundballs, three draw controls and two caused turnovers.
 
Freshman Maggie Pedersen (Glasco, N.Y.) led the Knights with five groundballs, while Morgan Cordes (Sound Beach, N.Y.) won three draw controls and scooped three groundballs. Kayla Goman (Greenwich, N.Y.) joined Clemens with a pair of caused turnovers.
 
Weir finished with three goals and five points for Old Westbury, while Taylor Guarneri led the Panthers with six groundballs.
 
Picillo made three more saves in the second half to finish with 12 for the Knights, while Ashley Gugliuzzo stopped six Mount Saint Mary shots in earning the win.
 
Old Westbury finished the game with a 29-15 advantage in shots, a 21-14 advantage in shots on goal, a 33-31 edge in groundballs and a 10-9 edge in draw controls. The Knights finished the game 12-for-19 in clearing chances.
 
Wednesday's loss drops Mount Saint Mary to 4-7 overall and to 0-3 in Skyline Conference play. Next up for the Knights is a home league tilt with Sage on April 20. Opening Draw is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.

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