No. 4 Adelphi Edges No. 8 Mercyhurst :: Jessie Horeth set her career-high with six points and tied her career highs in goals (3) and assists (3).

Jessie Horeth set her career-high with six points and tied her career highs in goals (3) and assists (3).

March 16, 2008

Hempstead, N.Y. - The Mercyhurst women's lacrosse team battled back from a five-goal deficit to tie No. 4 Adelphi Sunday, but the Panthers scored the final two goals of the contest and pulled away for a 14-12 victory.

Rachel Ray scored twice in the first five minutes of the second half to help Adelphi build a 10-5 lead and the Panthers still held onto an 11-6 advantage with 21 minutes left in the contest. But Mercyhurst All-American candidate Breanna Haggerty scored with 20:03 to play and sparked the Lakers to six of the next seven goals to tie the game.

Following Haggerty's goal, Jessie Horeth scored 15 seconds later and Kate Smith scored 40 seconds after that to make it 11-9. Adelphi momentarily regained control on a Michelle Ceraso goal with 18:08 to play but the Lakers answered with three more in a row.

Horeth scored with 17:23 to go to make it 12-10 but the score remained that way for more than seven minutes before Haggerty cut the deficit to one with 9:40 to play. Masterton added a free position goal 25 seconds later to tie the score. But Adelphi's Allison Tumulty scored on an assist from Ray with 8:11 to play and the Panthers added an insurance goal on a Vanessa Sotcheff free position shot with 6:15 to go that closed out the scoring.

Horeth ended the game with three goals and three assists for a career-high six points. Masterton had three goals and two assists and Haggerty added three goals, the 13th consecutive game in which she has at least that many. She also has at least one goal in 30 consecutive games and 32-of-34 for her career.

Smith scored two goals for the Lakers and Alicia Guzzo came off the bench to add a score. Elizabeth Tice added an assist. Maggie Yackel had a team-high four ground balls but Adelphi held a 30-19 advantage in that stat. Maeve McGoff made 10 saves, playing all 60 minutes in goal.

Both teams had 34 shots and Mercyhurst held a 20-8 advantage in draw controls. The Lakers committed 19 turnovers, one more than Adelphi.

Adelphi improves to 3-0 on the season and Mercyhurst falls to 3-2, with the losses coming against the No. 1 and No. 4 teams in the country. The Lakers will play at Seton Hill Wednesday at 4 p.m.