Box Score ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (Feb. 28, 2016) – Junior midfielder Cooper Sesselman (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) had a first-half hat trick and graduate attacker Meghan Orlando (Hicksville, N.Y.) contributed seven assists to lift the Molloy College women's lacrosse team to a 12-9 season-opening win over Saint Michael's on Sunday (Feb. 28) at John A. Darcy Field in Rockville Centre. The early-afternoon contest was the opening tilt for both teams in the 2016 campaign.
The maroon and white opened the game with three straight markers, one from seniors Katie O'Brien (Oyster Bay, N.Y.) and Kim Pepe (Levittown, N.Y.) and one from junior Alexa Watson (Massapequa Park, N.Y.) in taking a 3-0 lead within the first ten minutes of gameplay. The Purple Knights were able to respond in kind with three goals of their own including the first two from sophomore attacker Kealy Moyna (Yonkers, N.Y.) in knotting the score up at three-all at the halfway mark of the opening period. Sesselman got the Lions back in front by scoring three of the next four goals (with the other coming from Saint Michael's) to give her side back a 6-4 advantage. Molloy would lead at the halftime break by an 8-5 score as sophomore Jessica Markowitz (Baldwin, N.Y.) scored her first marker of the season and freshman Brianna Wilson (Levittown, N.Y.) netted her first career tally to end the opening act of competition.
The second half opened with a bang for Molloy as Orlando and Markowitz scored goals about 75 seconds apart to put the maroon and white ahead by five goals, 10-5. Moyna attempted to bring her side back into the contest by scoring three goals in the second half, but good defense and ball possession combined with goals by Markowitz and Wilson silenced the Purple Knights and propelled the Lions to the win in front of their home fans at Darcy Field.
Orlando's seven assists were one off the single-game record that she had set last season versus UDC on Apr. 4, 2015. Sesselman and Markowitz kicked off their 2016 campaigns with hat tricks while red-shirt junior goalie Caroline Winters (Baldwin, N.Y.) had an 11-save performance and picked up the victory. For Saint Michael's, Moyna led with a game-high five goals while four other players netted a marker in the loss. Junior keeper Grace Gunning (Norwell, Mass.) stopped nine Molloy shots in the losing effort.
The Molloy College women's lacrosse team will face a difficult test in its next contest, as the Lions will play at Kayo Rodriguez Field against the fourth-ranked Chargers of New Haven on Thursday (Mar. 3) at 3:30 p.m.
