ADA, OH – Five different Franciscan women's lacrosse players registered a point in the Lady Barons' season opened despite FUS falling to Ohio Northern, 10-4, Saturday afternoon.

"It was really encouraging to see the offense spread out as much as we were able to today," remarked head coach Maura Conant following the season-opener. "Today was the first time we got to really play together as a team. There are definitely things we need to work on but today was a good first step."

Franciscan found itself in a 5-0 hole about half way through the first half but sophomore Carly McDonald got the Barons on the board with the first FUS goal of the season.  Junior Elizabeth Dawyot caused a turnover on the other side of the field and picked up the groundball to start a good clear for the Lady Barons. Sophomore Treise McCarthy was the last person in the ball in her stick before handing it off to McDonald to cut the ONU lead to 5-1.

Junior Mary Krolicki won the ensuing draw control but sophomore Elizabeth McEntee's free position shot was saved during Franciscan's next possession to keep the score 5-1. The Polar Bears and the Lady Barons each committed turnovers on their next possession but Franciscan committed one more and ONU took advantage of a 6-5 opportunity and pushed its lead to 6-1 with 6:29 to play in the first.

Neither team was able to score in the last six and half minutes of the first and the two teams went into halftime with the score 6-1 in favor of ONU.

The Polar Bears were able to score three quick goals to open the second half, taking advantage of Lady Baron turnovers to take a 9-1 lead. With 19:07 to play, McEntee scored her first goal of the season to cut the lead to 9-2. ONU answered with its last goal of the game with 17:16 to play in the second to take a 10-2 lead.

"We have to capitalize on our possessions," continued Coach Conant. "We need to take care of the ball and make each possession count."

With 8:35 to play in the game, Krolicki made her possession count as she was fouled with in the eight-meter arc and buried a free position goal to trim the lead to 10-3. Just over a minute later, Dawyot scored her first goal of the game after picking up the ground ball off a saved free position shot and brought the score to its final, 10-4.

Freshman goalie Brittany Bane made four saves in the final seven minutes of the game to keep the score close but the Lady Barons could not close the gap.

"Brittany had a good game in goal for us today," remarked Coach Conant. Bane finished the day with 13 saves and three ground balls.

"Elizabeth Jordan and Elizabeth Dawyot had really great games in the midfield and on defense for us," complimented Coach Conant.

Dawyot finished the day with seven ground balls, a draw control and four caused turnovers to go with her goal while Jordan picked up three ground balls for the Lady Barons.

McEntee led the Lady Barons with four draw controls and picked up four ground balls to add to her goal and seven shots on goal.

The Lady Barons and Polar Bears each won eight draw controls while ONU picked up 32 ground balls to Franciscan's 31.

The Lady Barons will return to field on Wednesday when they travel to Muskingum for a 4pm game.