Millersville, Pa. - The Millersville University women's lacrosse team dropped its first game of the season on Monday afternoon, losing to Georgian Court by a final score of 18-7. It marked the first game of new head coach Cindy Wilson's Millersville tenure. 

The Marauders were dealt a tough task to open their season; Georgian Court went 13-6 last season, including a perfect 9-0 in Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) play, on its way to a conference championship. 

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
• Genevieve Speights scored the first goal of Millersville's season off an assist from Sarah Leverentz to open the scoring less than two minutes into the game. Erin Fagan doubled the Marauder lead to 2-0 less than 20 seconds later off a pass from Calie Swegon.
• The Lions took over from there, scoring 10 goals and not allowing any for the rest of the half. Arianna Quinlan and Samantha Fernandez each contributed three goals during the stretch, while Nicole Barbella assisted four of the goals.
• Coming out of halftime, the Marauders once again scored the first two goals of the half. Leverentz notched the first goal less than five minutes into the half off an assist from Sara Burney. Less than 30 seconds later, Grace Cobaugh scored the first goal of her collegiate career off a free-position shot.
• Georgian Court scored the next seven goals, three of them coming from Fernandez and three being assisted by Barbella.
• Millersville then put a 3-0 run together with the first goal being scored by MaryCait Dorley off a free-position shot with 10:44 left on the clock. Eliza McNamara recorded the first goal of her collegiate career at the 7:02 mark off an assist from Speights, who scored her second and the final goal of the match for the Marauders with 4:06 remaining in the game. 

COACH CINDY WILSON QUOTES
• "There were flashes of really good things. It was exciting to see some of the things we are capable of, now it's a matter of being consistent and putting a full 60 minutes together."
• "We lost some key players in key positions from last season, so a lot of people were learning new roles today. We need to take today as a learning experience in order to grow and get to where we know we need to be."
• "Georgian Court is a good team. They do well in their conference and they came out strong and ready to go today. It can be tough to get into a rhythm early in the season. We saw some adjustments from beginning to end which we can build on. It's good to start your season against good teams."
• "We saw some good things from our freshmen today who were playing in their first collegiate game. Grace Cobaugh and Eliza McNamara stepped up. All of the freshman have done a good job of meshing with a new team and learning how the game works at the college level. Overall I was pleased to see them get acclimated today."
• "After the game we talked about everyone understanding their role and being able to execute it. We also talked about having a growth mindset. Every team is going to have losses throughout the season. Playing good teams early allows us to see our holes and see where we are at. These are the kind of experiences we can learn from in order to grow. There's going to be adversity throughout the season, it's just a matter of how we respond to it and how we use it to our benefit in order to move forward." 

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
• Genevieve Speights led the team with three points, two goals and one assist, while Sarah Leverentz was just behind her with two points, one goal and one assist.
• Natalie Sukanick scooped up a team-high four ground balls and caused a team-high four turnovers. Along with her strong offensive performance, Leverentz played well on defense with three ground balls and two caused turnovers. Michella Salvitti also collected three ground balls. 
• Gillian Zimmerman registered a game high and career-high five draw controls. Leverentz, Erin Fagan and Grace Cobaugh each recorded two draw controls. 
• Shannon Davis made 10 stops in net for Millersville. 

NOTES
• Eliza McNamara, Brianna Smith, Grace Cobaugh and Lauren Slonaker all made their collegiate debuts, while Calie Swegon made her Marauder debut.
• Millersville won the previous meeting with Georgian Court on March 3, 2017 by a score of 13-7.
• The loss ends a string of three-straight seasons in which the Marauders won their season opener. 
• All four head coaches in program history have lost their first game at the helm.  

UP NEXT
• Millersville will stay home and host Wilmington University on Wednesday, Feb. 27 at 4 p.m. on Chryst Field at Biemesderfer Stadium. The Marauders won their game against the Wildcats last season by a score of 21-11. 

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