BEVERLY HILLS, Mich. (2/12/2023) -- Redshirt freshman
Taylor Rocha had two goals in her Titan debut, but Canisius went on a second-half run as the University of Detroit Mercy women's lacrosse team fell, 16-5, to the Golden Griffins in the season opener on Sunday at Detroit Country Day High School.
Junior
Sarah Meek and sophomore
Maddy Camm each had a goal and freshman
Libby Cuckler had a goal and an assist.
Sophomore
Meredith Leavell made 10 saves in net, while freshman
Kayleigh Aitken made her collegiate debut and recorded one save. Junior
Kiah Nuessgen and sophomore
Katie Bilello each posted two caused turnovers and two ground balls and sophomore
Leah Bodnar had a team-high five draw controls and two GB's.
The Titans started the scoring just a minute into the contest as senior
Annie Gilbert found Camm for the score. Leavell then came up with three saves and Bilello had a caused turnover to keep Canisius off the scoreboard for the first nine minutes, and Rocha would give the Titans a 2-0 lead with a strike at the 5:50 mark.
Canisius would score three late goals in the first for a 3-2 lead. The Titans would knot it at 3-3 early in the second as another Bilello caused turnover led to Cuckler's first collegiate goal with 13:16 left. Canisius came back to take a 5-3 lead, but the red, white and blue would take advantage of a yellow card as Cuckler fed Rocha to make it 5-4 with five minutes to go, but trailed at the break, 8-4.
Despite four saves from Leavell in the third, the Golden Griffins extended their run to 10-straight goals until the Titans had a women-up goal with eight minutes to go in the fourth as Gilbert located Meek for the marker.
The Titans will be back in action next Sunday, Feb. 19, as the Titans visit first-year program Xavier in a 2:00 p.m. start.
