Newburgh, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Women's Lacrosse team suffered its third straight loss to open the season on Tuesday following a 20-7 defeat to visiting Kean. Katie Gattoni (Old Tappan, N.Y.) led the Mount with five points and joined Amanda Clemens (Baldwin, N.Y.) with four draw controls.
 
Kean opened the scoring just 22 seconds into the game and took a 2-0 lead with just under 27 minutes left in the first half, before the Knights rallied to knot the score at 2-2. Kayla Gilligan (Amityville, N.Y.) got the Mount on the board at 23:31 of the first half and Gattoni evened the score with her eighth goal of the season just 29 seconds later.
 
Kean answered with the next four goals to grab the lead for good in the game, but the Mount got back to within 6-4 with consecutive goals from Gattoni and Clemens just under a minute apart in the latter stages of the first half.
 
Following Clemens' first goal of the season at the 10:31 mark, the Cougars ripped off the final six goals of the first half to open a 12-4 lead heading into halftime. Danni LeSaint and Emilt Stasuk each scored man down goals over the run, with Stasuk's coming with just 20 seconds left in the opening stanza.
 
Kean outshot Mount Saint Mary 27-6 prior to halftime, including a 21-5 advantage in shots on goal. The Cougars picked up 14 groundballs before halftime and won 11 of the 17 draw controls contested in the first half.
 
Coming out of the break, Kean ran its run to eight goals with the first two tallies of the second stanza before Gilligan scored her second goal of the game at the 26:38 mark. The two teams alternated goals over the next three minutes before the visitors put five of the final six goals of the game on the board to secure the victory.
 
Gattoni finished the night with three goals and two assists to run her team lead in goals to 10, assists to four and points to 14. She also added four draw controls for the Knights.
 
Gilligan potted two goals, while Clemens and Christina Ryan (Franklin Square, N.Y.) each scored their first goals of the season. Clemens equaled the team-high with four draw controls and Maggie Pedersen (Glasco, N.Y.) paced the Knights with three groundballs.
 
Kean saw nine different players score in the game, led by five goals and seven points from Stasuk who added six draw controls. Andrea Trentacosti and Taylor Hynes each finished with two goals and a pair of assists with Anna Tampellini and Brittany Ballack each picking up three groundballs.  
 
Amamda Picillo (Valley Stream, N.Y.) suffered the loss in goal with nine saves and two groundballs in 30 minutes of work. Carolyn Smith (Massapequa Park, N.Y.) came on to play the second half and made four stops. Nikki Apostolopoulos earned the win for Kean with four saves.
 
Kean finished the game with a 45-13 advantage in shots and closed the game a perfect 12-for-12 in clearing chances. The Cougars won the groundball battle 19-10 and took draw controls 18-11.
 
At 0-3 overall on the season, Mount Saint Mary returns to action at home on Saturday against Keuka. Opening draw with the Wolves is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.