Molloy University Athletics

Box Score SAINT LEO, Fla. (Feb. 13, 2015) - Seeking warmer weather and its first win of the 2015 campaign, the Molloy College women's lacrosse team traveled down to Saint Leo, Fla. to take on Saint Leo University. While the former was achieved (45 degrees compared to Long Island's 14 degrees), the latter will have to wait until Sunday as the Lions slipped up versus Saint Leo by a final score of 11-7 at University Turf Stadium in the 2015 season opener. With the win, Saint Leo moved to 1-0 on the year, while Molloy fell to 0-1.

Down 2-0 in the first half, Molloy found the pair of equalizers when junior transfer Kim Pepe (Levittown, N.Y.) scored with 11:51 left, and when senior Casey Naab (Floral Park, N.Y.) tallied her first of the year (9:56 remaining). Both were unassisted. Saint Leo, however, regained the lead just 10 seconds later when Abbie Ross shot one past Molloy senior goalie Laura Vetter (Great River, N.Y.). Before halftime rolled around, the Lions of Saint Leo found one more goal to change the score to 4-2.

After the intermission, the Lions of Molloy started off the scoring when freshman Jessica Markowitz (Baldwin, N.Y.) netted the first goal of her collegiate career with 29:26 left. From that point on until 15:16 mark, the scoring pattern read Saint Leo-Molloy-Saint Leo-Molloy, before Saint Leo took an 8-5 advantage with two straight markers. In the aforementioned pattern, Naab scored her second and third goals of the game, completing the hat trick. For good measure, Naab added a fourth goal with 9:38 left to bring Molloy to within two (8-6).

The Lions of Saint Leo put further distance between themselves and their opponents when the hosts scored three straight to take an 11-6 lead. Molloy scored once more -- with 4:09 remaining in regulation -- when graduate student Shannon Defliese (Garden City, N.Y.) found the back of the cage.

The only Molloy assist of the night was handed out by senior Meghan Orlando (Hicksville, N.Y.), which came on Naab's second goal.

In the cage, Vetter stopped eight shots, while her counterpart, Brittany Millsap, made four saves.

Head Coach Tom Campolettano and the Lions return to the field for game #2 of 2015 on Sunday, February 15 when they travel just 40 miles south to square off against the University of Tampa. Game time is scheduled for 12 p.m.  LiveStats and a video webcast can be found here.