HARROGATE, Tenn. – The LMU women's lacrosse team opened up with three straight goals and held the Knights scoreless in the second half as they coasted to the 14-6 win over Mt. St. Mary (N.Y.) Monday afternoon.

LMU improves to 5-3 on the season while Mt. St. Mary falls to 3-4.

Rachel Bernhardt and Kennedy Buechner each had a hat trick to lead the Lady Railsplitters in goals, with Buechner also having a game-high four assists. Erin DePaul, Amara Moss, Casey Kelly and Zoe Zervos each had two goals each. Kelly also led the team with seven draws won while Melissa Saganich led the team with five ground balls. Micayla Starnes went the distance in goal and had seven saves.

Christina Ryan led the Knights with two goals and two assists, while Chelsea Henke, Morgan Pavlik, Liz Halpin and Hope Blanc each had a goal. Maggie Pederson had five ground balls to lead the team. Amanda Picillo played the first half in cage and had six saves, while Jackie Finkel played the second half and notched five saves.

Bernhardt got LMU on the board quickly as she took the pass from Buechner and scored 21 seconds into the game. Kelly and Buechner joined her over the next three minutes, putting the Blue and Gray ahead 3-0. Both teams would score a pair of goals each, making the score 5-2, before LMU rolled off four unanswered goals to lead by seven with 12 minutes remaining. The Knights would then score four goals of their own to cut the lead to 9-6 before DePaul took the pass from Buechner and scored with 20 seconds remaining to extend the lead to 10-6 at the half.

The Lady Railsplitters would only score four times in the second half off of goals from Moss, DePail, Bernhardt and Buechner, but they would hold Mt. St. Mary scoreless over that period to cruise to the 14-6 win.

Quick Hits
- Bernhardt's first goal of the game at the 29:39 mark (21 seconds into the game) tied for the third quickest goal in LMU history. She joins Amara Moss (vs. Siena Heights - 3/3/2018) and Jasmine Click (at Pikeville – 3/21/2016) in that regard. The second quickest goal, 14 seconds, was by Casey Kelly vs. Ursuline on 3/6/2017 and the quickest, 11 seconds, was by Bre'Asia James vs. Pikeville on 3/24/2015.

- Kelly, Moss and Buechner are the only three LMU players to score in every game this season.

- This is the 50th game in the LMU program's history and the first one where the starting LMU goalie was not Shannon Novak. She had started all 49 of LMU's previous games until today. Novak started at defense, so her streak of being the only player to play every game in program history continued.

Up Next
LMU will make the trip up the Powell Valley for a 7 p.m. first draw at UVa-Wise Wednesday evening. They are looking for their first-ever win over the Cavaliers, who are 5-3 on the season. The Lady Railsplitters will return to SAC play Saturday afternoon at Wingate.