PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – On Saturday, Mar. 2 the women's lacrosse team suffered a tough loss to St. Joseph's University. The Hawks downed the Wildcats 16–8 bringing Villanova down to 2-3 on the season and improving St. Joe's record to 2-2 overall.

Saint Joseph's jumped out to a very early lead over Villanova to start the contest. The Hawks scored nine unanswered goals throughout 23 minutes of the first half.

The Wildcats finally got on the board with 3:16 left in the first. Brittany Bruno was able to score her fifth goal of the season off a man-up possession after Rebecca Lane got sent to the sideline with a yellow card.

Upon her return, Lane was able to score one more goal for the Hawks before the half came to an end giving them a 10-1 lead. With one-minute remaining in the first 30 minutes of play, sophomore transfer, Taylor Lucey netted in her first career goal as Wildcat. Saint Joseph's lead at halftime, 10-2.

At the half, Villanova's struggle to compete with St. Joe's showed in the numbers. The 'Cats trailed 20-10 in shots, 17-7 in shots on goal, 19-9 in ground balls and also had five more turnovers than their opponent. However, VU did lead 8-5 in draw controls and 7-5 in saves.

To begin the second set of play, Bruno netted in another goal for the 'Cats just over a minute in. Unfortunately for Villanova, the host went on another scoring run and netted in four more unanswered goals.

Carlye Maita and Libby McKenna would go on to cut their opponents lead down to 14-5 with 18 and 15 minutes remaining. Maita scored her third goal of the season, while McKenna scored her first career collegiate goal.

With 12 minutes remaining in the contest, the Wildcats limited the Hawks to only two more goals. Lane scored her fifth and last goal of the contest while Alyssa Manley scored the last goal for her team and her first of the game.

In between St. Joe's last two goals, Devin Hassinger found the back of the net on an assist from Lucey. The transfer student finished the contest with one goal and three assists and Hassinger finished with one goal, two caused turnovers and eight of her team's 14 draw controls.

Villanova's received its last two goals of the game from Kim McDonough and Nicole Concannon which finalized the Hawks lead 16-8.

For the competition, the Wildcats ended with 27 shots, 17 of which were on goal, 14 saves from freshman goalie, Alexa Moro and 21 ground balls. Saint Joseph's ended with 35 shots with 30 of them on goal, nine saves, 25 ground balls and 12 draw controls. Amber Weedon spent most of the time in the net for the Hawks. She recorded eight of the nine saves while Veronica Wilson recorded one in her time of relief.

Stephanie Kelly added four goals and four assists to lead the Hawks with eight points. Francesca Donato also added three goals and three assists to help in their victory over Villanova.

In the net, Moro now has a season total of 51 saves on 139 shots faced for a save percentage of .472. Katie Comerford, Ashley Lynch and Hassinger still lead the Wildcats offensively. Comerford leads the team in points with 15 and also has a team high nine assists. Lynch sits in second with 12 points on five goals and seven assists and Hassinger has a team high 10 goals as well as 30 draw controls.

Villanova returns to play on Wednesday, Mar. 6 at 1 p.m. when it hosts Holy Cross at the Villanova Stadium.