Seniors lead Women's Lacrosse to season-opening win against Felician

SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts - Even a heavy rainstorm could not quench the fire of the American International College women's lacrosse team on Saturday, March 9 as the team rode a nine-point outing by Antonella Mikolyuk and seven first-half strikes by Kathryn Moody to a 20-6 win over Felician University.

AIC opens the campaign 1-0.

The Moody-Mikolyuk connection was on full display in the opening 4:15 as the duo combined for five goals and seven points; Moody scored just 0:54 in and netted three more, with Mikolyuk striking for AIC's third in the five-goal run and setting up the first and third Moody goal. Jordyn Galgay and Caroline Colton set up the second and fifth goals of the stretch, respectively.

From there, Felician did wake up and score, but AIC countered each tally; Mikolyuk, Moody, Galgay, and Robin Trombly struck, with Galgay assisting the Trombly tally, giving AIC a 9-4 lead through one.

Moody hit the net twice more in the second, both on feeds from Mikolyuk, to hit an astounding seven goals in the first half. At the break, AIC led 11-5.

Mikolyuk scored three more times in the third, with Galgay, Gabrielle Walz, and Caroline Colton each also hitting the net. Drew Orzechowski assisted Galgay and Colton on their strikes for her first two collegiate points, pushing AIC's advantage to 17-5.

In the final period, Walz took over, closing the scoring with a natural hat trick in a 3:07 span to give AIC the 20-6 win.

Apart from the offense, Rhiann Ryan had an impressive debut, causing four turnovers in her first collegiate lacrosse game; AIC forced 17 turnovers in all.

Marissa Long turned aside nine shots in the win.

The Yellow Jackets open Northeast-10 Conference play on Wednesday, March 13 at defending national champion and No. 1 Pace University.