CINCINNATI, Ohio – The Niagara women's lacrosse team defeated Cincinnati, 12-9, to earn its first victory of the season on Friday afternoon at Gettler Stadium.

Senior Carrie-Jo Farrugia led the team with four goals and one assist for five points on the evening. Taylor Wolf contributed four points for her second consecutive game after scoring two goals and dishing out two assists.

Erin Patenaude collected three points off a goal and two assists, while freshman Jillian Ford netted a pair of goals for her first collegiate points as a Purple Eagle.

The win pulled the Purple Eagles even on the young season, 1-1, while Cincinnati falls to 0-5 overall on the year.

"Winning on the road is always tough and it was great to come away with a victory this afternoon," head coach Wendy Stone said.  "We saw different people step up and we took another step forward as a team today, especially on the defensive end of the field."  

The Purple and White received offensive support from Hannah Barnett, Molly Gray and Cailyn Negus as well, who tallied a goal each. Andrea Francisco and Amanda Yavorek both saw action in the Niagara cage as they combined for eight saves. Francisco, who played a majority of the contest (45 minutes) made three saves to collect her first win of the season while Yavorek made a game-high five saves. Their counterpart Megan Gulmi turned away nine shots.

Cincinnati kicked off the scoring bout three minutes into the action; however Niagara was quick to even up the score courtesy of Negus. Niagara took a 2-1 lead on Farrugia's first tally of the contest with 21:61 remaining in the first period but the Bearcats tied the contest two minutes later. After the Purple Eagles netted the next pair of goals to take a 4-2 lead, Cincinnati re-tied the game once more. NU closed out the half with two goals from Farrugia and Barnett to take a 6-4 lead into intermission.

The Purple Eagles opened up the second half taking their largest lead of the game, 10-5, with 19:10 left on the clock. After a three goal run by Cincinnati, Wolf netted her fourth goal of the game on a free position to put the Purple Eagles up three, 11-8. Ford would net the game's final goal at the 1:37 mark, helping the Purple Eagles to the 12-9 victory. 

In the game overall, Niagara held the lead in ground balls, holding a 23-20 advantage. The Purple Eagles also caused 10 turnovers compared to Cincinnati's eight. With the win NU takes a 2-1 lead in the all-time series against the Bearcats.

Niagara will wrap up its two game road trip on Sunday in Columbus, Ohio to take on the No. 10 Buckeyes at 1:00 p.m.