4/6/2006 - (Ewing, NJ) – The first taste of the “big time” for the Mount Saint Vincent Women’s Lacrosse team proved to be a valuable experience for the Dolphins on Thursday night as the Mount proved to be competitive with the defending National Champion College of New Jersey, falling 15-3 in front of a packed Lion Stadium on the campus of TCNJ. With their fourth straight loss, Mount Saint Vincent falls to 3-6 for the 2006 season, but the experience of hanging tough with a TCNJ program that has won 12 of the last 21 NCAA Division III National Championships could prove to be invaluable as the young Mount team continues its development.

TCNJ stormed out of the gate, scoring seven times during the first eight minutes of play, but after a time-out, Mount Saint Vincent settled in and slowed the game down, containing the vaunted Lion attack for much of the remainder of the game. Freshman Stacie Tripp (Glen Cove, NY/Glen Cove HS) scored off of a beautiful feed by sophomore Cyndi Adams (Mechanicsville, MD/Chopticon HS) at 14:25 to make it a 7-1 game. TNCJ scored four more times during the first half and led 11-1 after 30 minutes.

The Dolphin defense truly buckled down during the second half, holding the Lions to four goals while the Mount found the back of the net twice, including a spectacular goal by sophomore Chanel Comis (Durham, NC/Cardinal Gibbons) only 18 seconds into the second stanza. The Mount’s final tally was a Marie Garcia (Medford, MA/Medford HS) goal with 10:58 to play.

The story of the game on the Mount Saint Vincent side was the play of their defense, led by sophomores Michelle Yarger (Chantilly, VA/Chantilly HS), Cynthia Osorio (Oceanside, NY/Oceanside HS), and Alexis Alessi (Rockville Centre, NY/Oceanside HS). The trio played spectacular at times and were a major reason why the Dolphins forced 15 TCNJ turnovers and held the Lions to eight goals during the final 52 minutes of play.

Mount Saint Vincent returns to action on Saturday, April 8 when they play at home for the first time in 2006, a 4:00 p.m. Skyline Conference game against Kean. The game will be played at Columbia University’s Wien Stadium.