4/15/2007 - (Riverdale, NY) - There was almost no possible way for the Mount Saint Vincent Women's Lacrosse team to have faced more adversity on Sunday afternoon than what they encountered on the slick turf of Wien Stadium at Columbia University. It was raining, pouring, during one of the worst storms of the year, and bitterly cold on top of all of the precipitation. And squaring off with the Mount was a Stevens Institute of Technology team that had all but decimated the Dolphins during the last two seasons. In 2005, the Ducks beat the Mount 17-7. A year ago, it was a 16-4 Stevens victory. And with all of the adversity of the world against them, Mount Saint Vincent did not panic, they did not retreat, instead they turned in perhaps the finest team performance in the history of the program, and for 57 minutes went toe-to-toe with their powerhouse rivals, and even held the lead for much of the game. Unfortunately, as is said in sports, the game is 60 minutes long, and a late Stevens rally saw the Ducks score twice in a 38-second span during the final minutes of play, and Stevens escaped Mount Saint Vincent with a 9-8 win.

With the loss, Mount Saint Vincent is now 4-6 overall, and 2-1 in Skyline Conference play, but in losing they perhaps have reached the highest point of their development for a program that is only three years old.

Junior Chanel Comis scored a team-high three goals, but the Mount Saint Vincent Women's Lacrosse team dropped a 9-8 heartbreaker to Stevens on Sunday afternoon at Mount Saint Vincent. The Ducks scored twice during a 38-second span late in the second half to overcome perhaps the finest performance in the history of the Mount Saint Vincent Women's Lacrosse program. The 4-6 Dolphins travel to Western Connecticut on Thursday afternoon.

Mount Saint Vincent jumped out to a 3-0 lead as freshman Katie Tucci (Baldwinsville, NY/Baldwinsville HS) scored at 28:12 and junior Chanel Comis (Durham, NC/Cardinal Gibbons) scored twice in a 40-second span to give the Dolphins the three-goal edge only five minutes into the game. Stevens's Katie Lalli scored the first of her four goals at 23:14 to stop the bleeding for the Ducks, and a second Lalli tally at 16:25 cut the edge to 3-2. Junior Cyndi Adams (Mechanicsville, MD/Chopticon HS) scored for the Mount at 13:50 to make it 4-2, but two straight Stevens goals tied the score at 4-4 with 10:29 left in the first half. Tucci then responded with her second goal of the game at 9:19 to give Mount Saint Vincent a 5-4 edge heading into halftime.

As the weather intensified during the early part of the second half, both teams slowed down and much of the second half was a defensive struggle. Stevens tied the game with 11:23 remaining on a Lalli goal, and took the lead with 9:12 to play when Alyssa Pigott scored her only goal of the game, but after a Dolphin time-out, junior Erin Davies (Islip, NY/Islip HS) scored her third goal of the season at 7:20, and Comis tallied her third goal of the game three minutes later to give Mount Saint Vincent an 8-7 lead with 4:58 remaining in the game.

Stevens refused to give up. After a Mount Saint Vincent turnover, Fionuala Quinn scored her first goal of the game off of a Lalli assist with 3:48 to play to tie the score. 38 second later, a Dolphin defender slipped, allowing Stevens's Liz Mather to score her second goal of the game to give the Ducks the 9-8 edge. Mount Saint Vincent had several chances during the closing seconds to win the game, but the Stevens defense held behind goalie Grace Sack's eight saves in relief to preserve the win. Dolphin goalie Nicole Fortier (East Lyme, CT/East Lyme HS) made 10 saves in a losing effort.

With the disappointment of losing a game-of-the-year candidate behind them, Mount Saint Vincent will look to rebound on Thursday, April 19 when they travel to Western Connecticut State for a 4:00 p.m. game.