Newburgh, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Women's Lacrosse team opened the 2019 season on Sunday afternoon and suffered a tough 8-7 loss in overtime to visiting Castleton. Junior Courtney Condron (Franklin Square, N.Y.) led the scoring attack with three goals, while sophomore Jackie Finkel (Warwick, N.Y.) made 10 saves in goal.
 
The Mount never trailed it the game until overtime and led by as many as two goals on a pair of occasions. Freshman Anne Dolan (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) and Condron each scored over the opening seven minutes to build a 2-0 lead for the Mount in the early going and Condron's second of the game pushed the Knights in front 3-2 with just over six minutes left before halftime.
 
Castleton rallied to knot the score at 2-2 and later evened the score at 3-3 with 65 seconds before the intermission. Megan Krumm and Morgan Derosia led the way for the Spartans in the first half with a goal and an assist apiece.
 
Castleton held the edge in overall shots in the opening stanza 14-6, but finished with just a 7-6 advantage in shots on target. Groundballs were even at 11 per side before halftime, while the Spartans won six of the seven draw controls contested in the first half.
 
Coming out of the break, the Mount built its lead back to two goals when Alyssa DiMare (Staten Island, N.Y.) and Providence Gilkey (Shirley, N.Y.) scored their first goals of the season to push the Knights in front 5-3.
 
Castleton answered back with goals from Erin McKenna and Emma Best to even the score at 5-5, before Condron tallied her third goal of the game at the 13:01 mark of the second half to edge the Knights in front 6-5.
 
The two sides traded the final three goals of regulation time with Jackie Lindsay (Baldwin, N.Y.) giving the Mount a 7-6 advantage with just 2:06 left to play. Castleton's Erin Shuttle responded with the equalizer with 50 seconds left to even things again before Castleton goalie Samantha Hebb denied a shot in the closing seconds to get the game into extra time.
 
Mount Saint Mary won he opening draw of overtime, but following a turnover, the Spartans finished off the win when Shuttle buried a pass from Best with 23 seconds left in the period to give the visitors their only lead of the day.
 
Shuttle and Derosia each finished the day with two goals for the visitors with Derosia adding an assist to close a three-point day. Best won four draw controls for Castleton with Megan Wood leading the team with five groundballs.
 
Condron was one of five different goals scorers for the Knights, with Dolan finishing her collegiate debut with a goal and an assist for the Mount. Liz Halpin (LaGrangeville, N.Y.) paced the Knights with six draw controls with Hope Blanc (Wantagh, N.Y.) closing out a strong day with four groundballs and four caused turnovers.
 
Making her first career start, Finkel suffered the tough luck loss in goal with a strong 10 save performance. She added a trio of groundballs for the Knights on the day. Hebb picked up the win for the Spartans with nine stops and a pair of groundballs.
 
Castleton finished the day with a 29-17 advantage in shots on Sunday and an 18-16 edge in shots on goal. The Spartans also finished the day with slim edges in groundballs at 23-21 and draw controls 9-8. The Knights finished 13-for-24 in clearing chances, while Castleton wrapped up at 11-for-17.
 
At 0-1 on the season, Mount Saint Mary will be back at home on March 5 when it welcomes Ramapo to Kaplan Field. Opening Draw with the Roadrunners is set for 6:00 p.m.