Mercer Defeats Radford; Wins Big South Regular Season Title Outright

Saturday, April 27

Radford, Va.

Noon

Mercer University

12-5

Radford

6-11

MERCER

Radford

Mercer Defeats Radford; Wins Big South Regular Season Title Outright

4/27/2024 8:35:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score

Mercer hosts Big South Tournament as No. 1 seed May 3-5

RADFORD, Va. - The Mercer women's lacrosse team defeated Radford, 14-9 on Saturday afternoon in Radford, Virginia to win the Big South regular season championship outright for the second consecutive season and its third straight Big South regular season title.

Mercer went 8-0 in the Big South this season, its second consecutive season going undefeated in conference play. The Bears will hos the Big South Tournament as the No. 1 seed May 3-5 from Five Star Stadium.

The Bears got off to a bit of a slow start offensively against Radford, but the Bears scored 13 goals over the final three quarters to earn the road win. Shots on goal were 29-20 in favor of Mercer. Draw controls were also in favor of Mercer 16-8.

Kayla Soltys led Mercer's attack with four goals and one assist. She also had a game high nine draw controls. Gabby DiVirgilio also had four goals on the afternoon.

Defensively, freshman Fiona Tanis had four ground balls and one caused turnover. Kate Vanderlinde made 11 saves in goal for the Bears.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The first quarter was an offensive struggle for both teams with each team's defense and goalie's stepping up to the challenge early on. After 15 minutes, the Bears found themselves in a 1-1 tie with Radford.

A couple of man-up goals from Soltys put Mercer up 3-1 early in the second quarter. Mercer took a 5-1 lead after a goal from Caroline Glus, but the Highlanders responded scoring the next three goals to make it a 5-4 game.

Two goals from DiVirgilio followed by a goal from Maddi Koury gave Mercer a four-goal lead at halftime at 8-4. Soltys scored her third and fourth goals of the game in the third quarter and Mercer extended its lead to 11-5 after the third quarter.

Radford got within three goals at 12-9 with five minutes left to play but Mercer would score the final two goals of the game for the 14-9 win.

NOTES

Mercer went undefeated in the Big South for the second consecutive season
Mercer will host the Big South Tournament as the No. 1 seed
The Bears went 6-2 in away games in the regular season
Mercer went 4-for-9 on free position shots compared to Radford who went 1-for-9
Gabby DiVirgilio scored her 50th goal of the season continuing to improve her career high
Kate Vanderlinde earned her 300th career save in goal

UP NEXT
Mercer will begin the Big South tournament as the No. 1 seed and play the No. 4 seed Longwood on Friday, May 3 at 4 p.m.

FOLLOW THE BEARS
For complete coverage of Mercer Women's Lacrosse, please follow the Bears on social media at @MercerWLAX (Twitter) and @Mercerwlax (Instagram) or visit the official home of Mercer Athletics at MercerBears.com.