By Justin Malone, Staff Writer

Last Sunday, Xavier women’s lacrosse suffered a close 11-10 defeat in a thrilling face-off against Detroit Mercy in the program’s first ever home game. 

The Musketeers started off roaring in their efforts, sprinting their way to an early 2-0 lead in the action. The Titans then invigorated their own offensive rally, initiating a six-point scoring run to claim a 6-2 advantage at the end of the first quarter. 

Xavier fought back into the game, responding with their own five-point scoring run early in the second quarter to narrow the Titans’ lead to only one at halftime.

The game turned into a back-and-forth affair throughout the second half, as the two squads continually traded goals in their resilient efforts. However, late into the fourth quarter, Detroit Mercy scored an unanswered free position goal to secure a lead that the Musketeers could not regain.

Freshman attack Lola Mancuso led the way for Xavier in the historic contest, posting a program-record four total goals and the program’s first-ever hat trick in a game. She went four-for-seven shooting with five shots on goal.

Freshman goalkeeper Marina Piszczor also had a career afternoon, recording 12 saves against the Titans in the home opener. She made a save to begin the game and another one to end the game.

Assisting the Musketeers on both sides of the ball were graduate student attack Riley Halloran, who earned her first Xavier career goal early in the first quarter and picked up a ground ball and draw control, while forcing two turnovers in the match; freshman Samantha Balara, who picked up two driving goals in the game and added one assist, five ground balls and caused three turnovers; and freshman midfielder Erin Berls, who logged her first collegiate career goal in the game.

Graduate defender Hannah McFeeters led the Musketeers’ defense with six ground balls and four turnovers, which were both team-highs in the game.

In the game, the Musketeers totaled 10 goals, three assists, 30 ground balls, 12 draw controls and 21 caused turnovers.

The new women’s lacrosse program is Xavier’s 19th NCAA Division I sports team and is the first Division I program added by Xavier in the last 16 years. The team is led by Head Coach Meg Decker.

The team worked in the offseason last year to recruit and began building a competitive program to significantly compete in games. The team began their young campaign in Oregon on Feb. 11.

The team hopes to earn the program’s first-ever win against Radford on Friday at 1 pm.