Kings Point, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Women's Lacrosse team snapped a three game losing streak on Wednesday night with an important 12-9 road Skyline Conference win at the United States Merchant Marine Academy. Katie Gattoni (Old Tappan, N.J.) led the offensive attack with six points as the Knights moved into a three way tie for third place in the league standings.
 
The Knights found themselves trailing 2-0 in the opening 1:35 of the contest, but scored four of the next five goals to move in front 4-3 with 14:37 left before halftime. Gattoni scored all four goals for the Knights over the run, including her 40^th of the season to give the Mount it first lead of the night.
 
USMMA answered just over two minutes later to knot the score at 4-4, but the Mount finished the half with three of the final five tallies to carry a slim 7-6 lead into the intermission. Kayla Gilligan (Amityville, N.Y.) started the stretch for the Knights with Mikaela Rios (Mastic, N.Y.) scoring twice in the final 9:45 of the opening stanza.
 
Mount Saint Mary was outshot 17-13 overall in the first half, with Amanda Picillo (Valley Stream, N.Y.) making seven first half saves. USMMA finished the first half with a 16-10 edge in groundballs, while the Knights won eight of the 15 draw controls taken before the break.
 
The Knights spread their lead to 9-6 coming out of halftime with goals from Gilligan and Morgan Cordes (Sound Beach, N.Y.) over the first 5:53 of the second half and held the Mariners off the board until the 22:47 mark of the second period.
 
USMMA scored three of the next four goals following the Cordes tally for the Knights and sliced its disadvantage to a single goal twice in the final 20 minutes of regulation time. Goals from Maggie Pedersen (Glasco, N.Y.) and Christina Ryan (Franklin Square, N.Y.) in the final 10:57 spread the Knights' lead out to the final three goal advantage.
 
Gattoni scored four times and assisted on two other goals for the Mount to move her team lead in goals to 40, assists to 14 and points to 54. She paced the Knights with five draw controls. Gilligan scored three times for the Mount in the win with Rios posting two goals and an assist.
 
Cordes led the Mount with five groundballs and caused three turnovers to go along with her marker. Meghan Cumming (Massapequa Park, N.Y.) and Pedersen finished with three groundballs apiece with Julia Fitzpatrick (Shelton, Conn.) winning a pair of draw controls.
 
USMMA got three goals from Angela Parker with Grace McHugh leading the team with three assists and five points. Parker closed a strong all-around game with five groundballs and five draw controls for the Mariners.
 
Picillio finished the night with 13 saves, reaching double-figures in the category for the fourth time this season. She added three groundballs in the win for the Knights. Hannah Gizzi suffered the loss for USMMA with eight stops.
 
Overall, USMMA held a 29-23 edge in shots and a 22-20 advantage in shots on goal. The Mariners also finished the game with the edge in groundballs 27-20 and draw controls 14-10.
 
Wednesday's win improves Mount Saint Mary to 4-6 overall on the season and to 3-2 in Skyline Conference play. The Knights return to action on Saturday when they play host to Purchase on Senior Day. Opening Draw with the Panthers is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.