DALLAS, PA – A tale of two halves played to Susquehanna women's lacrosse's favor with a Friday night win at Misericordia. Tied 7-7 in a back-and-forth first half, the River Hawks responded with four straight goals and outscoring the Cougars at one stretch 9-1 to take a hold of the second half and depart MU's campus with a 16-10 victory. The win puts Susquehanna in the win column for the first time this year at 1-1 with a home non-conference meeting with St. Mary's College of Maryland Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Misericordia drew first with just over a minute gone by in the contest before Susquehanna relayed the next two scores coming from the sticks of
Hannah McNamara and
Kelsey Homberg to lead 2-1 with 8:57 left in the quarter. Both sides exchanged two straight goals, with
Emma Kelleher accounting for both the River Hawks' scores for her first two of four goals on the evening as Susquehanna led 4-3 late in the first. The Cougars, however, got a goal off in the final second of the quarter to even things up at 4-4 entering the second. The next period continued with the back-and-forth pattern, though the River Hawks found themselves up 7-6 thanks to early second-quarter scores by McNamara,
Liv Owen, and Homberg. MU's Alicia Pileggi tied the game up at sevens halfway through the second, which led many to believe Friday's contest would be a repeat of the two teams' matchup last year that saw Susquehanna on the winning end of a 13-12 nail-biter.
With that in mind, the River Hawks obliterated that possibility by shutting the Cougars out the rest of the first half and connecting for three straight scores for a 10-7 lead going into halftime. Riefenhauser grabbed the first two goals, followed by Kelleher's third of the night. Coming out of the second half, Owen added on to Susquehanna's lead just over a minute and a half in. Misericordia's Rachel Shook attempted to shake off SU's threat to cut their lead down to three again with 6:31 remaining in the third, but Susquehanna gained it right back in a quiet third quarter as
Allie Kutler bumped their lead back up to four to enter the fourth up 12-8. The fourth proved to be all River Hawks as they opened with four scores to cap off their 9-1 run and double up on the Cougars 16-8. Homberg accounted for the first two of these goals, followed by Kelleher and Riefenhauser to ensure at least a hat trick for all of them. Misericordia salvaged two goals in the final two minutes of the game.
Riefenhauser finished with six points on three goals and three assists to lead the contest. Kelleher provided an assist in a five-point day, while Homberg and Owen had four points, with Owen having two of each. Kutler's one goal and one assist, along with McNamara's two scores, offered both two-point nights. Goalie
Aerin O'Brien picked up her first win of 2024 administering seven saves in a full 60 minutes in net.
Tuesday's matchup with the Seahawks opens up a four-game home stand, followed by non-conference matches against McDaniel Mar. 2, Alvernia Mar. 4, and Rowan Mar. 9.
