Upon returning to Tenney Stadium, Marist women’s lacrosse outscored the Merrimack Warriors 7-2 in the second half, topping them 12-6 to earn their third win overall and second conference win after a shaky start to the non-conference season.
Led by a balanced attack from midfielder Chloe Birckhead, the senior captain secured a hat trick while freshman attack Makenna Graham shined with a strong two-goal performance.
Taking the reins for Merrimack, sophomore attack Lindsey Attkinson had a hat trick and two assists for the Warriors. Atkinson scored or assisted on five of the six Warrior goals.
“She’s a pretty talented player, pretty athletic, she has great timing on her cuts, and if you don’t pay attention to the angles you are going at her, then you might find yourself on her back hip,” said Marist head coach Keith Detelj.
The Marist offense started slowly, though having four free positions in the first four minutes, failed to convert on any of those opportunities. Merrimack took advantage of Marist’s missed opportunities and scored their first goal on an unassisted shot by the Warriors’ leading goal scorer Atkinson.
The Red Foxes answered back in just two minutes to take a 2-1 lead, with goals from junior midfielder Jesse Manger and senior attacker Alexa Borges respectively.
A back-and-forth tussle in the first quarter with the score knotted at three, junior midfielder Caitlin McNaboe deceived the Warrior defense to give the Red Foxes a 4-3 lead with three seconds remaining.
Maintaining their lead thanks to sophomore goalie Meghan Morris saving her fifth shot, Marist extended their lead on the ensuing possession with a Birckhead goal putting them up 5-3.
Merrimack responded after a thirteen-minute scoring drought with Atkinson’s second goal of the day. The Red Foxes were able to keep their 5-4 lead going into the half. Marist played great defense to salvage Merrimack’s last possession going into the half.
At the beginning of the second half, the Red Foxes came out hot and extended their lead to 7-4 thanks to two quick goals, one from Graham and Manger.
Though the Warriors cut the lead down to two with a free-position goal from freshman attack Hailey Schnider, the Red Foxes showed off their confidence. They scored three straight goals in the blink of an eye to extend their lead 10-5.
“We came into halftime feeling like we are playing down to their level so we wanted to level up and play our game. I feel like we did a great job of that in the second half,” said Manger.
Down five goals at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Merrimack turned to Atkinson, who scored her fourth goal early in the quarter. The Warriors tried to come back, but Marist turned up their play, closing the game out with Graham’s second goal of the match.
“She’s a good shooter so we felt that putting her in a spot where she could get her hands free was a great role for her,” said Detelj.
At the end of the game, the Red Foxes scored a goal at the buzzer to put the game away for good, contributed by sophomore midfielder Madison Leale, her first goal of the season.
The Red Foxes held the Warriors to just six goals on 18 shots thanks to Morris’s nine saves and profound team defense.
“Our defense was huge, they saved a lot of shots and caused a lot of turnovers today,” said Birckhead.
The Red Foxes will look to build off the win versus Merrimack when they take on Canisius at Tenney Stadium on Saturday, April 5, with a noon face-off.
Edited by Dan Aulbach
Photo from Marist Athletics
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