Box Score 1 | Box Score 3 Villanova, Pa.- The Mercyhurst Women's Water Polo team returned to action this weekend as they kicked off the season at the Villanova Tournament. The Lakers went 1-3 on the weekend, but the win over Gannon served as their first win at the Division I level.
 
How it Happened:
Mercyhurst started their season against Iona on Saturday and Senior Grace Brzyski kicked things off as she grabbed the first goal of the game and of the season for Mercyhurst. But over the next three minutes, Iona scored four unanswered goals. Before the end of the first quarter, Brzyski added another goal to cut the deficit to two. The second quarter featured little scoring, but just over a minute apart Iona grabbed two goals to take a 6-2 lead. Brzyski was able to net one more before going into the half. Freshman Victoria Mastrangelo opened the half with a goal of her own to get the lead back down to two, but the Lakers would only put up two more goals, with both coming from Freshman Maryn King, in the game. Iona put another eight in the net to secure a 14-6 victory over the Lakers. Senior Marley Ramon tallied eight saves in the matchup.
 
The Lakers finished off day one with a match against Mount St. Mary's. Once again, the first quarter was neck and neck as the Lakers answered goals twice. Brzyski scored her fourth goal of the day to tie the game at one. But that was as close as they would get. After Junior Bri Allstun's goal to make the score 3-2, the Lakers didn't score again until Allstun buried another one to open the third quarter. Mount St. Mary's scored six more unanswered after that. Brzyski scored two more to earn her second hat trick of the day and Graduate Student Allie Dombkowski scored in the closing stages as well in the 15-7 loss.
 
The Lakers grabbed their first win of the season over their crosstown rival, Gannon, to open up Sunday. The Lakers dominated the first quarter as they put up five goals in the period. Junior Krista Domaracki grabbed her first two goals of the season to kick things off. Her second goal gave Mercyhurst a lead they wouldn't surrender to the Golden Knights. Freshman Grace Tirak, Sophomore Freya Green and Sophomore Marley Hanlon all added goals in the first period as well. Dombkowski scored the Lakers lone goal of the second quarter, but it was enough to give them a two goal lead at the half. Gannon got the game back to 7-6 after they answered a goal from Brzyski with one of their own, but Hanlon grabbed another goal to end the third. Goals from Brzyski and King added some insurance to secure their first win of 2025.
 
The Lakers ended the weekend with a 17-4 loss to Villanova. They scored just two goals in the first half, as Allstun scored in the first to make the score 4-1 and Freshman Olivia George scored to make it 13-2. Dombkowski and Tirak added the other two goals as the Lakers finished off the weekend with their third loss.
 
Next Game:
The Lakers will take a week off before they head out to Lewisburg, Pa. for the Bucknell Invitational. The Lakers will kick off the weekend with a match against St. Francis at noon on Saturday, February 8^th.