Mercer Wins Third Consecutive SoCon Title

MACON, Ga. – Iseabal Cryne earned the SoCon Tournament Most Outstanding Player award in Mercer's 14-13 win over the Furman Paladins to capture the teams third consecutive Southern Conference Championship on Saturday afternoon.

The Paladins took an early 1-0 lead 1:09 in the game. Hailey Rhatigan retaliated with a free-position goal to tie the game at one goal each. Furman would go on to score five unanswered goals to take a 6-1 lead. Lily Morin started a four-goal run for the Bears eight minutes after Mercer's first goal. Another seven minutes would go by before a goal would be scored. Eva Thorn would feed the ball to Rhatigan for her second goal of the game. Sophomore Chloe Schaeffer joined in on the Bears scoring soon after with an assist from Haley Gerold. A Furman turnover would get the ball back in the Bears' offense and in the stick of Shannon Urey. Urey found an open Thorn who got it past the Furman goalie to cut the Paladins lead to one. Furman would score soon after Thorn to grow their lead back to two. Mercer would take advantage of Furman's penalty and score a man-up goal by none other than Hailey Rhatigan to keep it a close game. Two quick goals by the Paladins would give them the three-goal lead. Mercer wasn't backing down, scoring two more goals in the last five minutes from Thorn and Schaeffer to end the first half at 8-9.

The Black and Orange kept their fire going in the second half. Less than two minutes in, Lily Morin got one past the Furman goalie on a free position shot to tie the game at nine goals each. Mercer's first lead of the game came at the 26:40 mark when Rhatigan scored her fourth goal of the game on an 8-meter shot. Over the next 10:09, both teams traded points back and forth. Morin and Rhatigan scored the Bears two goals during that time to take a one-point lead. Attacker Shannon Urey would score the Bears last two goals, one from a free position shot and the other assisted by Schaeffer. Furman would score two goals to cut the Bears lead to one with 33 seconds left in the game. Lily Morin won the next draw control, and the Bears would go on to win their third consecutive Southern Conference Title.

COACH SAM QUOTE
"First, congratulations to Furman on a great season and to their senior class. It was a very exciting game to watch today and was a battle from beginning to end. I am so proud of our players and our staff today. We needed everyone on our team to help us win today. I think we showed a lot of toughness and grit and left it all out on the field. Three-peat for the SoCon Champions should earn us some hard-fought respect. Light the Bridge! Go Bears!"

NOTABLES

The Bears 14-13 win over the Paladins earn them their third consecutive Southern Conference Title. Mercer improves to 3-0 against Furman in the conference title game.
Goalie Iseabal Cryne earned the title of Tournament Most Outstanding Player, the first goalie in conference history to earn the honor. She stopped 21 shots total in 115:02 minutes played.
Hannah Lind led the Bears with three groundballs in the championship game. She also joined Lily Morin, Hailey Rhatigan, and Emily Barnes with two caused turnovers.
Hailey Rhatigan scored five of the Bears 14 goals. Three of her goals came from the 8-meter line. She also led with seven draw controls.
Iseabal Cryne, Hannah Lind, Lily Morin, Emma Pizzo, and Hailey Rhatigan earned spots on the 2021 All-Tournament Team.
Natalie Sannes was named the SoCon Women's Lacrosse Championship Pinnacle Award winner.

UP NEXT
The Bears will wait to see who they will play in the 2021 NCAA Women's Lacrosse Tournament. The selection show is set for Sunday, May 9 at 9 p.m.

Follow The Bears
For complete coverage of Mercer Women's Lacrosse, please follow the Bears on social media at @MercerWLax (Twitter), /MercerWomensLacrosse (Facebook) and @MercerWLax (Instagram) or visit the official home of Mercer Athletics at MercerBears.com.

Players Mentioned

Emily Barnes

Iseabal Cryne

Haley Gerold

Hannah Lind

Lily Morin

Emma Pizzo

Hailey Rhatigan

Natalie Sannes

Chloe Schaeffer

Eva Thorn

Shannon Urey

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