Women's Lacrosse Defeats Butler in Overtime for First BIG EAST Win in Program History

Saturday, April 26

Indianapolis, Ind.

12 p.m.

Xavier University

2-13

Butler

0-14

XAVIER

Butler

Women's Lacrosse Defeats Butler in Overtime for First BIG EAST Win in Program History

04.26.25 | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score

Eight different Musketeers scored in the win.

By: Abbey Curtis, Xavier Athletic Communications

INDIANAPOLIS - Megan Droney scored the game-winning goal under a minute into overtime to secure the Xavier lacrosse program's first BIG EAST win. The Musketeers used eight different goal scorers to take down Butler 12-11 in a thrilling overtime game.

Xavier finishes the 2025 season at 2-13 with a 1-5 BIG EAST record while the Bulldogs end their year at 0-14 overall and 0-6 in the BIG EAST.

how it happened

Samantha Balara scored the first goal of the contest just over a minute in to give Xavier the first lead of the afternoon.

Butler responded with three straight goals of their own to make it a 3-1 game.

Machaela Henry cut the deficit to one off an assist by Megan Droney.

The Bulldogs made it a two-goal lead again less than a minute later, but Maya Graham responded with her first goal of the afternoon and Greer Simonton tied it up at 4-4 on Graham's team-leading 10th assist of the season.

Butler scored once more to take a 5-4 lead after the first period.

Both teams were unable to find a goal for the first seven minutes of the second quarter until Butler scored their sixth of the game.

Balara responded with her second of the afternoon, but the Bulldogs scored once more to take a 7-5 lead into the half.

Butler scored the opening goal of the second half to extend their lead to three, but Droney and Lola Mancuso scored back-to-back goals to bring Xavier back within one.

The Bulldogs scored once more before the end of the third quarter, but Mancuso scored her second of the afternoon to make it a 9-8 lead for Butler entering the final period.

Butler scored the first goal of the fourth quarter before both teams went cold for eight minutes.

Dylan Halloran scored with six minutes to go assisted by Graham to kick off an offensive surge for the Musketeers.

Lily Hayes then scored less than a minute later to tie it up at 10-10.

Samantha Balara scored her career-high third goal of the game with 23 seconds on the clock to give Xavier their first lead since her opening goal in the first quarter.

The Bulldogs won the draw to come down the field and tie it back up at 11-11 with one second left in the game and force overtime.

Droney scored the game-winner in the first minute of overtime thanks to Graham's career-high third assist of the afternoon to secure the Musketeers' first league win.

notables

Samantha Balara led the offense with three goals to record her first career hat trick.
Lola Mancuso scored two goals and contributed one assist to finish the season with a program-record 51 points.
Megan Droney also had two goals and an assist to extend her scoring streak through five games.
Erin Berls had a career-high six ground balls along with three caused turnovers and two draw controls.
Maya Graham had a career-high three assists as well as a goal to finish the season with a team-high 12 assists.
Machaela Henry had four ground balls, four caused turnovers and a goal.
Colby Wasson contributed four ground balls and three caused turnovers.
Morgan Handzel had seven draw controls as well as a ground ball and caused turnover.
Jada Brandon recorded eight saves for a .533 save percentage.
The Musketeers 12 goals are tied for the most against a BIG EAST opponent. Xavier also scored 12 goals against Butler in their first meeting on April 1, 2023.
Xavier picked up 23 ground balls in comparison to Butler's 15.
The Musketeers had eight different goal scorers for the third time this season.