Cincinnati, Ohio-Saturday, February 20th the Mount St. Joseph University Lions took the field in their opening game of the 2021 Lacrosse season. Due to Covid, their 2020 season was cut short and the team was ready to get back into action. In their Home opener the Lions hosted Alma College.
The first half saw the Lions surrender 5 Un-answered goals to the Scotts before finally scoring. The Lions opened the scoring in this game with an unassisted goal by Sophomore Sarah Murray. This goal allowed the Lions to mount a small comeback effort in which Freshman Josi Jennings scored her first career goal with the Lions, making the score 5-2. Fast forward to the 11:53 mark in the first half Rachel Kyle also scored her first career goal for the Lions, followed up by another Kyle score with 5:13 left in the first. These two goal left the Mount trailing by one before Alma caught fire once again scoring two more unanswered goals before, another Mount Freshman scored her first career goal, Rachel Winkler scored at the 2:06 mark, this was the last Mount score of the first half, leaving the Lions trailing 10-5 going into the half.
In the second half the Lions were able to have a more competitive half, scoring 6 times and holding Alma to 7. Murray got the Lions offense going early in the 2nd scoring just 8 seconds into the half. Kyle then added her third goal of the game for the Lions at the 23:36, quickly followed by a Megan Dancer score at the 23:19 mark. After the Lions 2-0 run, Alma came-back with a 2-0 run of their own before a second Dancer goal off of a Jennings assist with 19:50 remaining in the game. After about 10 scoreless minutes of play the Lions finally found the scoring column again, this time Dancer scoring her third goal of the half. The scoring for the game ended on a Kyle goal at the 2:45 mark in the second. While the Lions put up an all around great fight they fell in their season opener to Alma 17-11
Overall for the Lions, there were several players that performed at a high level. Kyle finished her first College game with 4 goals, leading the Lions in scoring. Dancer continued her successful career with the Mount, as she scored 3 times, all in the second half of action. Murray was able to score twice for the Lions. Along with these multiple goal performances Jennings scored once for the Lions off of just two shots, while also having an assist.
The Lions will be back in action on Sunday, March 7th when they travel to Hanover College. This game is set to start at 2PM. For more WLAX and other MSJ sports coverage continue to follow msjlions.com
