Staten Island, NY – The Wagner College women's lacrosse team dropped a rain-soaked Northeast Conference (NEC) affair to the Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers on Wednesday afternoon, falling by a score of 11-6.

With the win, Mount St. Mary's moves a half-game in front of Wagner in the race for the top seed in the NEC Tournament.

Junior Kasey Dorney scored a pair of goals off assists from senior Stefani Peluso, as both tied for the team lead with two points. Graduate student Megan Drum, senior Victoria Tucci, senior Erin Kerstetter, and sophomore Megan Greco all added a goal as well.

Defensively, junior Aileen Hannan finished with game-highs of five ground balls and three caused turnovers, freshman Ryan Murphy scooped two ground balls and caused a turnover, and graduate student Giaci Vitolo added a ground ball and a caused turnover.

Jordan Groover and Alayna Pagnotta each finished with a hat trick for Mount St. Mary's; Jenna Oler stopped 14 of 20 shots on goal in net.

How it Happened:
Mount St. Mary's took a 2-0 lead almost exactly halfway through the opening half, but Kerstetter got Wagner on the board less than a minute later, halving the deficit.

After the Mountaineers re-took a two goal lead at 3-1, Drum and Greco each found the back of the net, tying the game with just over eight minutes left in the half. The Mountaineers would add another to regain the lead heading to halftime.

The Peluso-to-Dorney connection struck to tie the game just over a minute into the second half, but Mount St. Mary's responded with a 5-0 run (three coming from Groover) spanning more than 19 minutes. The teams traded goals over the final nine minutes, with Tucci and Dorney each scoring for Wagner, whose four-game conference winning streak came to an end.

Beyond The Numbers:

• Wednesday marked not only Wagner's first NEC loss, but the first time they'd trailed in a conference game this season
• Dorney netted multiple goals for the fifth time this season, while Hannan caused multiple turnovers for the fifth time this season
• Kerstetter's streaks of games with at least five points (five) and games with multiple points (19, dating back to 2019) both came to an end

Next Up For Wagner:
The Seahawks head north Saturday, March 27, continuing NEC play with a 1:00 p.m. opening draw against the Sacred Heart Pioneers.