DALLAS, Pa. – The Albright Lions women's lacrosse team could not overcome an early first half deficit as they dropped their season-opening game to Misericordia 13-8 on Thursday evening in non-conference action.
 
Senior Sophie Bass immediately grabbed the draw control win off the opening faceoff and found freshman Lauren China quickly for her first collegiate goal just 13 seconds into the contest to give the Lions the early 1-0 lead. The Cougars countered with three goals over the span of four minutes to take a 3-1 lead at the 22:18-mark of the first half. Freshman Taylor Filmer recorded the first goal of her collegiate career to end the short run on a free positon shot before junior Kelly Baumann tied the game at three with 19:07 in the first half.  Unfortunately for the Lions, that would be the last goal they would score in the first half as the Cougars tallied four unanswered goals head into the locker room with a 7-3 lead.
 
Misericordia would continue their run of goals into the second half as they scored four more goals in a span of 3:27 to take a commanding 11-3 lead at the 22:03-mark of the second half. China ended the eight-goal run with a free position shot goal at the 20:59-mark to make it an 11-4 contest. Misericordia answered back just 1:02 later on a free position shot goal of their own to go up 12-4. Bass came back with a goal of her own 54 seconds later to make it a 12-5 game before tallying a second one to cut it down to 12-6. But yet again Misericordia had an answer, this time just 37 seconds later to go up 13-6 at the 13:08-mark. Baumann would make it 13-7 with her second goal of the game at the 11:53-mark of the second half before freshman Marisa Cocca tallied her first collegiate goal to end the scoring at the 9:25-mark of the second half.
 
The teams matched each other in shots at 22, but the Cougars held a 19-15 advantage for shots on goal. The Lions also held a slight 22-21 advantage in ground balls, while the Cougars held a 13-10 advantage in draw control wins. Bass, Baumann, and China each led the Lions with two goals, while Baumann also tallied two assists total four points on a goal and an assist. Baumann led the team with five ground balls and five caused turnovers as well, while Bass tallied five draw control wins. Sophomore goalkeeper Terae Mason was saddled with the loss after making six saves in the full 60 minutes, while Maggie McGovern earned the win after making seven saves in the full 60 minutes.
 
The Lions will return to action on Saturday, February 23^rd as they will travel to face Ursinus at 1 p.m.