Newburgh, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Women's Lacrosse team will make its sixth appearance in eight years in the Skyline Conference Championship on Tuesday when it hosts fifth seeded Sage in the First Round of the event. Live Stats will be available for those who cannot attend the 7:00 p.m. contest.
At A Glance: The Knights enter Tuesday's First Round game at 6-7 overall and are coming off an 18-4 road loss at regular season champion Farmingdale State on Saturday.
Katie Gattoni (Old Tappan, N.J.) scored two goals to lead the Mount to go along with five draw controls, while
Maggie Pedersen (Glasco, N.Y.) picked up five groundballs and caused three turnovers.
Through 13 regular season games, Gattoni paces the Knights with 54 goals, 15 assists, 69 points and 39 draw controls. Gattoni set the career record in goals, assists and points during the 2017 season and enters Tuesday's tilt with 269 points, 222 goals and 47 assists. She is the only player in program history to score 200 goals in a career and just the record to reach the 200 point plateau.
Freshman
Mikaela Rios (Mastic, N.Y.) is second on the squad in scoring with 20 goals and 27 points, with
Christina Ryan (Franklin Square, N.Y.) and
Kayla Gilligan (Amityville, N.Y.) posting 13 and 11 goals, respectively.
Pedersen and
Morgan Cordes (Sound Beach, N.Y.) are tied for the team lead in groundballs with 27, with Cordes adding 19 caused turnovers and 30 draw controls.
Amanda Clemens (Baldwin, N.Y.) leads the Knights with 20 caused turnovers to go along with 23 draw controls, with
Chelsea Henke (Pawling, N.Y.) contributing 22 groundballs.
In goal,
Amanda Picillo (Valley Stream, N.Y.) has played 584:56 of a possible 781:00 and has started all 13 games heading into Tuesday. She has made 108 saves and holds a .470 save percentage to go along with 20 groundballs.
Carolyn Smith (Massapequa Park, N.Y.) has seen time in nine contests and stopped 26 shots.
Among the conference leaders, Gattoni stands third in goals per game (4.2) and points per game (5.3) and ninth in assists per game (1.2) and draw controls per contest (3.0). Clemens ranks ninth in caused turnovers per game (1.5), while Picillo sits fourth in goals against average (12.51) and save percentage (.470) and seventh in saves per game (8.3).
Scouting Sage: The Gators, who were picked eighth in the preseason poll, claimed the fifth seed in 2017 with a 7-8 overall record and a 4-4 mark against league opponents. Sage won six of its last eight regular season contests, including a five game winning streak that featured wins over league rivals Purchase, Maritime and an overtime win against Old Westbury.
Monica Koralus leads the Gators heading into Tuesday with 65 goals, 16 assists and 81 points to go along with 62 draw controls and 46 groundballs. Torri Sperl is chipping in with 35 goals and Nicole Maher has registered 26 goals, 33 points and 39 draw controls. Maher is tied for the team lead with Brittany Gage with 24 caused turnovers.
In goal, Jackie St. Pierre has played a team-high 734:40 for the Gators and made 11 saves. She holds a .408 save percentage and a 13.15 goals against average.
On the Skyline Conference leaderboard, Koralus sits second in goals (4.3) and points per game (5.4), third in groundballs per game (3.1) and fourth in draw controls per outing (4.1). Gage and Maher are tied for fifth in caused turnovers per contest (1.7), while St. Pierre ranks fifth in goals against average.
2017 Meeting: The Knights traveled to Albany on March 28 and scored a 15-10 win in its first conference game of the season. Gattoni finished with six goals and nine points to go along with seven draw controls. Picillo picked up the win in goal for the Knights with 10 saves.
Sage was led by four goals and five points from Koralus who added a team-high four draw controls. St. Pierre suffered the loss in goal with four saves in just over 25 minutes of work.
Championship History: Mount Saint Mary will play its sixth game in the conference championship Tuesday night and is in search of its first win. The Knights will play their first home game in the tournament in program history, previously playing on the road at Farmingdale State three times, St. Joseph's-L.I. once and Kean once.
What's At Stake: The winner of Tuesday's contest earns a date with top seed Farmingdale State on Thursday. The winner of the Purchase at Old Westbury (3:00 p.m. Tuesday) contest earns a date at St. Joseph's-L.I.
