NEW ROCHELLE, NY - The Iona women's lacrosse defeated Merrimack this Saturday afternoon 14-6 for their first home win of the season and their second win in a row. In today's victory graduate student Emily Stewart set a new program record with her second draw control today for the most career draw controls at 177, she surpassed both Christie Godlewski and Jaclyn O'Leary.

Iona's offense was led by Kira Varada, Micaela FitzPatrickand Stewart. Varada led the team with five goals, Stewart added four herself and FitzPatrick led the team with seven points, two goals and five assists. Stewart and Varada combined for 12 draw controls out of the Gaels 14 as a team. Alexa Maggiacomo added two goals and Maliya Haddock added one. 

In net for the Maroon & Gold Lauren Sweeney picked up the W playing all 60 minutes and only allowing six goals. The New Hampshire native stopped eight Merrimack shots. The sophomore also recorded one ground ball and caused a turnover. As a team Iona nabbed 21 ground balls with Stewart setting a team high with five.   

Emily Stewart was firing on all cylinders to start today's match, scoring the Maroon & Gold's first two goals in the game giving them a lead they wouldn't look back on. The Warriors got on the board just before FitzPatrick recorded a point on the next three goals for Iona giving them a four goal lead. Stewart recorded a hatrick in the first right before the end of the quarter and the Gaels took a three goal lead into the second. 

Second quarter saw zero offense, just a lot of solid defense for the first 11 minutes. As Iona's offense picked it up in the second the defense got even stronger keeping the visitors off the board. Iona scored four goals in the final four minutes of the first half and took a 10-3 lead in the second half.

Merrimack's defense stood strong in the third as they out scored the Gaels, 3-1 and closed the deficit to five. Iona's lone goal in the third came off the stick of Varada. Iona answered right back in the fourth, not allowing a goal for the final 15 minutes. Iona put three more in the back of the net with two of them coming on the powerplay.      

Iona is back on the road for their next game, Gaels will be taking on New Hampshire on March 2 at 2 p.m.

Be sure to follow Iona Athletics on all social media platforms:
IonaGaels: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube (Email Updates)
Iona Lacrosse: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube (Email Updates)