ERIE, Pa. – The Mercyhurst Women's Lacrosse Team will be back in action this Tuesday when they will host the IUP Crimson Hawks in the PSAC Quarterfinals at 4:00 p.m. The Lakers will enter the tournament as the No.2 seed out of the West with the Crimson Hawks holding the No.3 seed.
Lakers Overview
The Lakers are coming off a week in which they completed their 2022 regular season schedule with a pair of wins over PSAC opponents. They first jumped IUP in the PSAC West standings with a 9-6 win over IUP on Wednesday before defeating Gannon 13-9 on Saturday. Mackenzie Murphy registered a team high seven caused turnovers and seven ground balls while Marissa Comerate scored her first career hat-trick in the IUP game and followed it up with two additional goals against Gannon.
Scouting IUP
The Crimson Hawks will enter tomorrow's contest as the No.3 seed out of the PSAC West. They were ahead of the Lakers before the loss to Mercyhurst last Wednesday which ultimately resulted in Mercyhurst hosting tomorrow's contest instead of IUP.
They finished the regular season with a 12-11 win over Slippery Rock to put their record at 12-5. IUP is led on offense by Jordan Kulp and Leah Hunter. Kulp leads the team with 63 points on 19 goals and 44 assists while Hunter's 29 goals is tops on the team. The two teams split their two matchups during the regular season, both winning on the road.
One of the Nations Best
Mercyhurst senior goalkeeper
Kaitlyn Lippert finished the regular season with some of the best goalkeeping stats in the country. Her .530 save percentage ranks her second in all of division 2 just trailing Catawba's Ayrn Dorr by .12 percent. She is top five in the country in goals allowed average, currently sitting at 8.60. Her best game of the season produced a 20 save performance back on April 9th against Slippery Rock.
How the Bracket Shapes Out
With a win over the Crimson Hawks tomorrow the Lakers would then advance to the Semifinal round where they would run into the No.6 nationally ranked and No.1 seed out of the PSAC East, East Stroudsburg. From there the Lakers would face the winner of Seton Hill and West Chester/Millersville this upcoming Sunday. The semifinal and Championship round will take place at Seton Hill's campus due to them being the No.1 seed from the West.
