Newburgh, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Women's Lacrosse team suffered its first conference loss of the season on Tuesday night with a 19-9 defeat at the hands of visiting Farmingdale State. Sophomore Liz Halpin (LaGrangeville, N.Y.) led the Mount with three goals and eight draw controls.
 
Mount Saint Mary got off to a good start in the game, scoring three of the first four goals of the contest. Courtney Condron (Franklin Square, N.Y.) opened the scoring just under four minutes into the game and Halpin and Condron scored consecutive goals to push the Mount in front 3-1 with 19:28 left before halftime.
 
The Rams scored to pull to within 3-2 before Halpin scored back-to-back goals to spread the Knights' lead back to 5-2 with 9:17 left in the first half. The Rams answered with two straight and three of the final four goals of the opening stanza to pull to within 6-5 after 30 minutes of action.
 
Mount Saint Mary outshot Farmingdale State 15-9 in the first half and won eight of the 12 draw controls contested. Farmingdale State finished the first half with a slim 12-10 edge in groundballs.
 
Coming out of halftime, the Rams scored the first five goals of the second half and used a six goal run later in the period to open a 16-8 lead with just under eight minutes in regulation time. Christina Ryan (Franklin Square, N.Y.) scored her second goal of the half at the 6:09 mark to break the run, but the Rams tallied three more times in the final 5:50 to pull away for the victory.
 
Farmingdale State did not allow the Mount to score until the 17:52 mark of the second half, outshooting the Mount 24-12 after halftime and winning 11 of the 18 second half draw controls.
 
Halpin led three players with at least two goals with her three tallies and won eight of the team's 15 draw controls in the game. Ryan and Condron each scored twice for the Mount with Chelsea Henke (Pawling, N.Y.) turning in a strong night with five groundballs and two draw controls. Morgan Cordes (Sound Beach, N.Y.) finished off the contest with three groundballs and three draws for the Knights.
 
Farmingdale State had four players with hat tricks on the night, led by six tallies from Courtney Gendels, while added six groundballs and five caused turnovers. Julia Tuohy scored three times and assisted on five goals, while Sam Shelton tallied three times and Nicola Ingrassia scored three times and assisted on two goals. Alexandra Sparrow and Shelton each won four draw controls for the Rams.
 
Junior Amanda Picillo (Valley Stream, N.Y.) suffered the loss in goal with six saves, with freshman Jackie Finkel (Warwick, N.Y.) coming on to make one stop in just over eight minutes of work. Jessica Meyers earned the win for the Rams with 10 saves.
 
Farmingdale State finished the game with a 33-27 advantage in overall shots and a 26-19 edge in shots on goal. Groundballs went to the Rams 20-19, while draw controls in the game were even at 15. Mount Saint Mary finished the game 20-for-23 in clearing chances, with the Rams going 22-for-25.
 
Tuesday's loss drops Mount Saint Mary to 5-5 overall on the season and to 2-1 in Skyline Conference play. Next up for the Knights is a trip to St. Joseph's-L.I. on Saturday for a 12:00 p.m. draw with the Golden Eagles.