LOUDONVILLE, N.Y. – The Niagara women's lacrosse team fell to the Siena Saints by a score of 10-9 on Wednesday afternoon at Siena Turf Field in the final game of the regular season.

The loss gives the Purple Eagles the no. 6 seed in the MAAC Championships which NU clinched for the first time since 2003. Niagara will play at the No. 3 seed Monmouth in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament on Saturday, April 25 at 11 a.m. 

"I'm incredibly proud of the effort by our team today," head coach Wendy Stone said.  "We fought our way back into the game in the second half and came up just a little bit short. It's a whole new season now heading into playoffs, we've learned a lot this season and are looking forward to facing Monmouth on Saturday."

Niagara (6-11, 3-5 MAAC) jumped out to an early lead behind Hannah Barnett's goal, giving the Purple Eagles a 1-0 advantage with 26:19 on the clock in the opening period. Siena (10-7, 5-3 MAAC) responded with a free position man up goal less than a minute and a half later to tie the contest, 1-1. However, NU reclaimed a 2-1 lead after Erin Patenaude found the back of the net at the 24:16 mark.

From there, the Saints took a 7-2 command with six straight scores over the following eight minutes. Niagara stopped the run with goals from Danielle Maio and Molly Gray with 11:25 remaining in the first stanza. Neither team would find the back of the net for the next nine minutes until Siena scored the final two goals of the period going into halftime with a 9-4 lead. 

After the intermission, the Niagara's offense opened the half with two consecutive goals to make it a 9-6 game before Siena netted a goal of its own to keep NU at bay with 23:26 remaining in the contest. Grace Hunt scored the Purple Eagles' first goal of the half at 28:02 and Taylor Wolf followed up with her 31st goal of the year about five minutes later. 

Despite Niagara's efforts to pull the game within one, the Saints held off to prevent the Purple Eagle comeback. Patenaude, Gray and Hunt added the final three NU goals of the game. 

Siena held 29-19 advantage in the shot department and a slight 22-21 edge in groundballs. Goaltender Andrea Francisco started the contest for the Purple and White, making six saves, while fellow teammate Amanda Yavorek made three stops on the afternoon.

The Purple Eagles finished the regular season with a 6-11 overall record, and a 3-5 MAAC mark. Niagara's six victories mark the most regular season wins for the first time since 2006. 

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