Outpacing the Paladins

Saturday, April 9

Greenville, SC

1 p.m.

Mercer University

3-6, 3-1BSC

Furman

8-3, 4-0BSC

Mercer

Furman

Photo by: Connor Garrison

4/9/2022 3:44:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score

Bears take down Furman 17-4 on Saturday afternoon

GREENVILLE, S.C. – Six straight goals for Mercer, which included three from Hailey Rhatigan in the stretch helped the Bears to its fourth consecutive Big South win on Saturday afternoon – a 17-4 win at Furman. The four in a row matches the best start to a league season since a 4-0 beginning to an ASUN schedule in 2017.

Rhatigan – the country's ninth-best goal scorer – found the back seven times and scored Mercer's two in the first for a lead they would hold wire-to-wire.

Shannon Urey opened the second with a strike for the 3-0 lead just 20 seconds into the frame. Jordan Bramble found Erin Degnan who connected on a shot to up the lead to four at the 11:19 mark of the quarter. 80 seconds later, Rhatigan completed a hat trick, which was shortly followed with another from Urey for a 6-0 lead. Furman answered with three of the next five scores with Urey and Rhatigan goals sandwiched in between for a 9-3 lead to take into the break. Isea Cryne, the Mercer goalie, assisted on the Urey score that left just one second on the clock.

A Haley Gerold pass set up Rhatigan for her fifth of the game that was not even two minutes into the third quarter. Nearly six minutes would be shed from the clock before Chloe Schaeffer found Lyndsey Lewis for an 11-3 lead. The Bears pushed the advantage to nine when Rhatigan notched her fifth to bring it to 12-3. Less than a minute later, Abby Soltys found Urey for the for the 13-3 lead with just 4:23 left in the third. Not even a minute had passed before Schaeffer slipped it past Furman's keeper for a 14-3 advantage.

Urey, Rhatigan and Koury tallied fourth quarter scores to stretch the lead to 14. The Paladins' Sophie Shaw trimmed the margin to 13 with a goal with just 15 seconds left.
Cryne picked up the win with eight saves. Mercer fired 29 shots with 21 of them being on target.

The Bears will return home for the first of two next week when they will host another former SoCon foe, Wofford, on Wednesday. First draw versus the Terriers is set for 4 p.m.

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