AVE MARIA, Fla. — The Ave Maria Lacrosse team closed on the non-conference portion of the season in style Thursday evening as they throttled the Eastern Oregon Mountaineers. The Gyrenes scored 15 goals before Eastern Oregon got on the board and cruised to a 23-4 victory.
Ave Maria did most of their scoring in the first quarter, scoring 11 goals. Lily Hynds got the scoring started just 17 seconds into the game as she buried a feed from Annie Dhabliwala.
Six different goal scorers found the scoresheet in the opening frame as the Gyrenes raced out an 11-0 lead. Hynds led the way, scoring three more times after the opening goal to finish the frame with four. Dhabliwala and Anna Bocchino each had two, while Angelina Diesslin, Alex Mazurczak, and Alli Fifield each scored one.
Ave Maria scored their 10
th goal and started the running clock with 55 seconds left in the quarter off the goal from Mazurczak. It is the fastest the Gyrenes have ever started the running in program history.
Once AMU got the running clock going, they started to hold onto the ball a little more. The Gyrenes scored just four goals in the second quarter while Eastern Oregon scored one. Fifield got her second goal of the game to start the quarter, followed by back-to-back strikes from Dhabliwala and one more from Hynds.
Eastern Oregon scored the last goal of the half and the Gyrenes took a 15-1 lead into the break.
The third quarter was the closest of the game, but the Gyrenes still outscored the Mountaineers 4-2. It was the usual suspects again with Dhabliwala, Mazurczak and Fifield scoring the first three goals. Eastern Oregon netted two goals back-to-back, but the Gyrenes closed the frame out with another strike from Dhabliwala to take a 19-3 lead at the end of three.
Ave Maria outscored Eastern Oregon 4-1 again in the fourth quarter. Dhabliwala got the scoring started in the fourth but was responded by the final strike from the Mountaineers. The last three goals for the Gyrenes were off the sticks of Maura Barnes, Mazurczak and Dhabliwala.
When the final air horn blew, Ave Maria walked off the field with the most goals scored since March 22, 2025.
"I think the girls played really great," said head coach Katelyn Sherman after the win. "[We] really shared the ball well on offense and just executed everything we wanted to."
Dhabliwala led the team with nine points off eight goals and one assist. It is a career-high number of goals and assists for the senior and ties the program record for the second-most goals scored in a game, matching Abigial Seiler's eight-goal game against Saint Ambrose March 20, 2023.
Five other Gyrenes logged a multi-point game with Hynds and Fifield at five, Mazurczak at four, Diesslin at three and Bocchino at two. It was a season-high for Hynds and the most points for Fifield since March 5, 2023, against Gordon in her freshman season.
In the midfield, Barnes led the Gyrenes with six draw controls as Ave Maria outdrew the Eastern Oregon 22-7.
Defensively, four different Gyrenes each caused a turnover. Goalie Francesca Pieniadz led the team in ground balls with five.
In goal, Pieniadz made seven saves against 11 shots in her sixth win of the season.
With the win, Ave Maria finishes their non-conference portion of the schedule with a record of 6-3. The Gyrenes now turn their attention to the Sun Conference for the final six games of the season.
The Sun Opener is a tricky one as the Gyrenes travel north to Hardeeville, South Carolina, to take on the No. 3 SCAD Bees. SCAD finished their non-conference schedule 5-2 leading into the contest.
The match is set for Saturday, March 28, with opening draw at 3 p.m. The game will be streamed live on the Urban Edge Network.
