Newburgh, N.Y. – Senior goalie Jackie Finkel (Warwick, N.Y.) made a season-high 17 saves and junior attack Megan Shalvey (Blauvelt, N.Y.) posted seven points, but it was not enough as the Mount Saint Mary College Women's Lacrosse team suffered its fourth straight defeat with a hard fought 16-12 loss to visiting St. Joseph's-L.I. on Wednesday.
 
Mount Saint Mary raced out of the gate on Wednesday, potting the first four goals of the contest over the first 6:09 of play. Shalvey opened the scoring at the 25:42 mark of the opening stanza with Britany Dones (Middletown, N.Y.) doubling the lead just 39 seconds later with her first of the evening. Shalvey scored her second of the game at the 24:46 mark of the opening period before Jackie Lindsay (Baldwin, N.Y.) gave the Knights a 4-0 lead with her third goal of the season at 23:51.
 
The Golden Eagles responded with the next six goals to surge in front 6-4, before the Knights knotted the score at 6-6 with back-to-back tallies from Shalvey and Nicole Cervone (Shirley, N.Y.) at 13:20 and 9:44, respectively.
 
The visitors rallied again with three straight goals to jump back in front 9-6, but Dones found the back of the net for the second time in the first half with 48 seconds left before halftime to being the Knights to within 9-7 after 30 minutes of action.
 
Ove the first 30 minutes, St. Joseph's-L.I. finished with a 23-14 advantage in shots with Finkel turning aside seven attempts prior to halftime. After the Knights won the first three draw controls of the contest, the Golden Eagles were able to take a 10-7 advantage in the category at halftime and added a 12-9 edge in groundballs over the course of the first period.
 
Coming out of halftime, Shalvey brought the Knights to within a single goal with a marker just 49 seconds into the second stanza, before the two teams traded two goal spurts. After the Golden Eagles scored two straight to jump in front 11-8, Victoria Ward (Oceanside, N.Y.) scored with the man-advantage at 25:16 and Alyssa DiMare (Staten Island, N.Y.) potted her first goal of the season at 23:33 to being the Knights to within 11-10.
 
Following the DiMare goal, the Golden Eagles scored five of the next six goals in the game to open a 16-11 lead, its largest of the night. Tori Staker and Amanda Gennardo scored consecutive goals to push the visitors in front 13-10 and after Shalvey's fifth of the game Gennardo scored twice and Sabrina Simonetti added her first of the night to push the lead to 16-11. Ashley Giorgi (Danbury, Conn.) got on the board with her first of the game with just eight seconds left to bring the score to the final 16-12 deficit.
 
Shalvey finished the night with five markers and a pair of assists for the Knights with Dones scoring twice for the Mount. Ward wrapped up the night with a goal and an assist for Mount Saint Mary.
 
In addition to her scoring output, Ward finished off a strong all-around game with eight draw controls and two groundballs, with Kate Crooker (Selbyville, Del.) causing three turnovers to lead the defense.
 
St. Joseph's-L.I. was paced by five goals each from Gennardo and Staker with Staker adding a pair of assists and 12 draw controls. Both players finished strong all around games with seven groundballs for the Golden Eagles.
 
Finkel kept the Knights in the game with 17 saves, stopping 10 shots after halftime. It marks the second time this season she has made at least 10 saves, giving her 52 stops on the season. Finkel rounded out the night with a team-high four groundballs for the Knights. Jillian Hummel also played a strong game in the cage, stopping 10 shots for the Golden Eagles.
 
St. Joseph's finished the game with the advantage in shots 44-25, shots on goal 33-22, groundballs 25-15 and draw controls 21-9. Mount Saint Mary finished 17-for-24 in clearing chances with St. Joseph's converting 15 of its 20 opportunities.
 
At 1-4 overall and in Skyline Conference play, the Knights are scheduled to conclude the regular season on Saturday with a home contest against the United States Merchant Marine Academy. Opening Draw with the Mariners is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.