The Lindenwood field hockey tacked on four more goals to its strong offensive season en route to a 4-1 road win over ECAC-rival Mercy on Monday. This was the second victory over the Mavericks this season for the Lady Lions.
 
The Lady Lions wanted to set the tone early when they obtained a corner attempt at the 3:35 mark in the first half. Chloe Bell jumpstarted a three-player passing combo between her, Maroussia Buysschaert, and Nicole Johnston that led to an early goal and lead. Johnston, the scorer, tallied her first goal of the season on the play.
 
The Mavericks retaliated right back when they dragged the ball onto their offensive side of the field and drew a penalty shot attempt. However, two-time ECAC Defensive Player of the Week, Skylar Starbeck, was not going to be denied and saved a rare free shot. The Lady Lions remained ahead 1-0.
 
After the signature save, the Lady Lions rewarded Starbeck by keeping the ball away from the defensive side of the field for the majority of the half.  Tara Robben and Greta Banholzer applied pressure on Mercy's goalie, Julia Amell, by each shooting a shot-on-goal within two minutes before Buysschaert added on to her hot start with an unassisted goal at the 19:49 mark to give her team a 2-0 lead.
 
The Lady Lions were still hungry for some more scoring opportunities as Robben and Graycen Dave contributed a shot-on-goal each in a crowded goal. Dave then received a pass from Johnston that aided her to a wide open shot at the net, and she scored her sixth goal of the season.
 
Neither team created any more chances for the winding minutes of the half as the Lady Lions closed it out with a 3-0 lead.
 
In the beginning of the second half, the Lady Lions mixed its lineup by inserting Mackenzie Litterst at goalie and gave Starbeck the rest of the day off. Also, Caro Theusnisz nearly extended the Lady Lions' lead at the 36:06 mark by launching a shot that ticked away by new Mercy goalie, Cheradyn Pettit. Robben also gave the Mavericks a scare when she crowded the goal and shot twice right at Pettit 50 seconds later.
 
At the 38:51 mark, the Mavericks managed to draw up a chance on offense when they recorded two penalty corners that only resulted one shot going wide. When they could not convert, the Mavericks found themselves guarding an aggressive Lady Lion offense as Banholzer and Johnston each unleashed missiles right at Pettit at the 45-minute mark. Fortunately for the Lady Lions, Buysschaert put the icing on the cake for her career day with her second goal off an assist from Banholzer that added onto to the Lady Lions' dominating lead. They did not post another shot-on-goal for the game.
 
That did not mean the Mavericks would give up. Within the final 15 minutes of play, they accumulated nine corners and six shots in which four of them were saved by Litterst. Although the Lady Lions played stout defense throughout that time frame, they committed a foul that allowed the Mavericks to shoot their second free shot of the game at the 66:08 mark. Jackie Ballin converted the shot into their only goal of the game then time ran out.
 
The Lady Lions displayed its dominance on offense once again as they outshot their 11th opponent this season with a 16-11 margin including a 14-7 on-goal comparison over Mercy.  Buysschaert's five points tied for the most in a game this season along with Karlie Quinn's five points against Mercy on September 25.
 
After the victory, the Lady Lions move to 10-3 overall and 4-1 in the ECAC as they will travel to Limestone for a conference matchup on Saturday, October 22 at 10 am CT.