INDIANA, Pa. – The Mercyhurst Women's Lacrosse team jumped the IUP Crimson Hawks in the PSAC West standings on Wednesday afternoon, defeating them by a 9-6 score. Marissa Comerate led the Laker attack with her first career hat-trick.

Meghan Nasman scored the first goal of the contest just over a minute into the first quarter to put the Lakers up 1-0 early on. The Crimson Hawks proceeded to score back-to-back tallies at the 11:08 and 7:10 marks of the quarter for their only scores of the first half. Maggie Newton and Victoria Gottorff scored to spark a 5-0 Laker scoring run which would last into the third quarter.

The Laker defensive unit led by goalie Kaitlyn Lippert held strong in the second quarter as they did not conceive a goal. The Lakers forced five IUP turnovers and Lippert registered five saves in the quarter. The Lakers used two late goals by Comerate and Amanda Bailey to take a 5-2 lead into the halftime break.

Comerate struck first in the second half to extend the Laker lead to four with 25 minutes of game clock remaining, however the Crimson Hawks would begin the start of a comeback effort, scoring three times in the final five minutes of the third quarter to trim the Lakers lead down to one before Rachel Hirst added a Mercyhurst goal with 20 ticks left of the third quarter clock to put the Lakers up 7-5 entering the fourth.

IUP brought the game back to within one with the opening score of the fourth quarter, but the Lakers held on as Newton and Comerate added insurance goals later on in the quarter to give Mercyhurst the 9-6 victory.

The Lakers finished the game outshooting IUP 21-12. Mackenzie Murphy recorded a team-high three caused turnovers and four ground balls while Lippert finished the game with six saves.

The Lakers will conclude their 2022 regular season schedule this Saturday at home against Gannon. Senior day festivities will start approximately 30 minutes before the scheduled 1:00 p.m. start time.