Women's Water Polo | 2/12/2017 9:05:00 PM

LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Mercyhurst women's water polo team lost its first four matches of the season at the Bison Invitational played at Bucknell University Feb. 10-12. The Lakers dropped their opening match to George Washington on Friday, followed by losses to host Bucknell and St. Francis (Pa.). Mercyhurst closed the weekend with a defeat against Claremont Mudd-Scripps Sunday morning.

Lakers 11, George Washington 22

The Lakers had their score doubled by George Washington 22-11 in their first game of the invitational.

GW found its way to victory by exchanging one Mercyhurst goal for two of its own. That scoring trend led to the Colonials holding comfortable advantages of three, six, and eight goal leads at the end of the first three periods.

The Colonials also made their scoring chances count, finishing with a .710 shooting percentage (22-31) as a team.

Mercyhurst did find success on the power play where the team went six of ten. Senior Becky Insalaco had three goals and one assist while freshman Jennifer Moshinsky mirrored the same stat line in her first collegiate contest.

Lakers 3, Bucknell 12

The host Bucknell established dominance in their home pool by taking a nine-point win against the Lakers on Saturday morning.

Despite holding the Bison to 0-7 on the power play, the Lakers did not fare much better with the extra attacker, going one of eight. The Lakers also outshot the Bison 25-21, but only converted on 12 percent of their shots (3-25) compared to Bucknell's 57.1 percent (12-21).

Insalaco had two of the Lakers' three goals, while fellow senior Jena Clinch picked up the other score. Meanwhile the Bison had at nine different players score.

Lakers 7, St. Francis (Pa.) 12

In Mercyhurst's second game on Sunday, the Lakers fell to St. Francis (Pa.) 12-5 much in part to St. Francis' 7-2 scoring run to finish the game.

Moshinsky led the Lakers with three goals while Insalaco added two more. Jenna Clinch and Carly Romano also added a goal each.

St. Francis' Emily Wickenheiser was the big scorer of the game with six goals on ten shots.

The Lakers found themselves trailing in team shooting percentage once again. They shot 25.9 percent (7-27) to SFU's 52.2 (12-23).

Lakers 5, Claremont Mudd-Scripps 12

In its final match of the weekend on Sunday morning, the Lakers dropped a seven-point contest to Claremont Mudd-Scripps from Claremont, Ca.
 
CMS found success shooting the ball converting on 12 of 22 shot attempts (54.5 percent), including a 3-3 mark on its three penalty shots. Four CMS players scored at least two goals.

The Lakers spread out their goals between five different players. Insalaco, Moshinsky, and Romano added to their weekend totals, while Kensey Clinch and Mason Feldstein picked up their first collegiate goals.

Mercyhurst (0-4) hosts its first home games of the season at the Mercyhurst Invitational Feb. 18-19 to be played at the Prep-Villa Events Center. The Lakers will play Siena and Bucknell on Saturday at noon and 5:30 before taking on VMI Sunday at 12:30 p.m.