Musketeers Score Season-High 13 Goals in Home Opener Win

Thursday, March 13

Cincinnati, Ohio

12 p.m.

Xavier University

1-5

Gardner-Webb

0-8

Gardner-Webb

Xavier

Musketeers Score Season-High 13 Goals in Home Opener Win

03.13.25 | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score

Lola Mancuso and Julie Cassidy each recorded a hat trick.

By: Abbey Curtis, Xavier Athletic Communications

CINCINNATI - The Xavier lacrosse team defeated Gardner-Webb 13-5 on Thursday afternoon for their first win of the season.

The Musketeers move to 1-5 on the season while the Runnin' Bulldogs fall to 0-8.

how it happened

Lola Mancuso broke open the scoring just over two minutes into the game and the Runnin' Bulldogs tied it up a minute later before Machaela Henry regained the lead quickly for the Musketeers off a free position shot.

Morgan Handzel recorded the first eight draw controls of the game in her career showing on the field.

Both teams went on a scoring on a socring drought through the last 10 minutes of the first half.

Julie Cassidy scored on a free position opportunity in the middle of second half and Mancuso followed up minutes later with her second goal of the game.

The Musketeers continued to pour on the goals, scoring four unanswered in the second quarter.

Xavier outdid their season-high shot total in the first half alone, totaling 27 shots while holding the Runnin' Bulldogs to just five.

Mancuso scored her fourth of the game to open the second half and Gardner-Webb responded with one of their own.

Teegan Lannon recorded her fourth save of the afternoon with time winding down in the third period.

Samantha Balara added another for the Musketeers just seconds into the fourth quarter and Mancuso scored her fifth to make it 10-2, the second double-digit scoring game for the Musketeers.

The Runnin' Bulldogs added three more in the fourth period, their only quarter with multiple goals.

Mancuso scored her season-high sixth followed by Cassidy's third and Kirra Crowley added one more in the final seconds of the game to secure the Musketeers' win.

notables

Lola Mancuso scored a season-high six goals, also picking up six ground balls and five draw controls.
Julie Cassidy notched her first career hat trick to go along with her three ground balls.
Morgan Handzel not only broke her own single-game program record with 15 draw controls, but also broke the season draw control record just six games into the season with 56.
Teegan Lannon had five saves and recorded a season-high .500 save percentage.
Machaela Henry picked up a career-high six ground balls along with her one goal and one assist.
Julia Frombach forced a career-high four caused turnovers as well as a career-high four ground balls.
The Musketeers recorded season-highs in points (19), goals (13), assists (6), shots (45), shots on goal (28), ground balls (32) and caused turnovers (18).

up next

Xavier hosts Wofford on Sunday afternoon for Senior Day. First draw is set for 12:00 p.m. at Corcoran Field.

coach decker's thoughts

"Winning the home opener will always be a good day. It was a beautiful spring day to work through areas of improvement as a team. Every single person from starters all the way through the sideline had the right energy for where we want to go as a program.

We had a lot of young players on the field today and they matured throughout the game. That was huge for us.

Lastly, Morgan Handzel broke our season draw control record today, just 6 games into our season. The draw is a special part of what we do here at Xavier and it is only possible with full team effort and mental focus. I'm proud of the entire unit for breaking ceilings always this year. Morgan has a lot of talent, but even more than that, she develops her talent and is a true student of the draw. It is really fun to coach her out there.

Looking forward to taking another step forward as a program on Sunday." - Head Coach Meg Decker