MADISON, N.J. (Feb. 27, 2016) – The Drew University women's lacrosse team dropped a non-conference contest to Muhlenberg College, 15-6, on Saturday afternoon while hosting the Mules' first game of the year at Ranger Stadium.
 
Junior midfielder Morgan Mason registered the 12th hat trick of her career in the setback. Sophomore midfielder Nicole Kinney scored once and led the team with three ground balls. Sophomore midfielder Maddie Spiess and junior attacker Kelly Dwyer logged a combined two goals on four shots.
 
The Mules (1-0) lost in the first round of the Centennial Conference playoffs last year. Muhlenberg drew first blood after a successful clear sprung them toward the Ranger net. A series of quick passes set the Mules up for a shot at the open net that they capitalized on just three minutes after the opening draw.
 
The Rangers (0-2) responded quickly on the their next possession, Kinney hopped through the Muhlenberg defensive unit and slipped the ball past the keeper to even the score at 1-1, 10 minutes in. 
 
The teams traded a couple more goals around the halfway point in the period. The Rangers' contribution came from Mason. The junior was awarded the ball after a penalty and immediately after the go-ahead whistle, crow-hopped and whistled home her first goal of the year.
 
Following Drew's game-tying second goal, Muhlenberg exploded into a five-goal scoring spree to run out the half, with the score 7-2.
 
Faced with what expanded to a 10-2 lead for the Mules, Drew tried to get a rally going. After Mason netted her second of the game off a free position shot with 24 minutes left, Dwyer flew into the zone, wound and fired home her first goal of the year. The pair of scores narrowed the score to 10-4 with 21 minutes to play.
 
Just a couple minutes after Drew's brief resurgence, Muhlenberg strung together a series of quick tic-tac passes in the offensive zone to flip in a quick response.  
 
With 16 minutes left in the game, Kinney parlayed a crisp, cross field pass from sophomore midfielder Juliana Strazulo to make the score 12-5. Just a minute later, Mason logged her hat trick with a free position snipe.
 
Drew gets one more home game before a 3-game road trip that has them shipping out to California for two. The opening series finale is scheduled for Friday, Mar. 4 at 7:00 p.m.