Fairfax, Va. – The visiting La Salle Explorers edged the George Mason women's lacrosse team, 11-10, at George Mason Stadium this afternoon.
 
After each team owned a period, the first half ended level, 5-5. The match see-sawed with five ties in the second half, but La Salle netted the final goal of the match to earn the Atlantic 10 Conference win.
 
Mason got off to a hot start with four straight goals to open the match. Grad student Ioanna Mantzouratos opened the scoring with a goal, assisted by Olivia O'Obrien, on Mason's opening possession. La Salle got on the board at 1:54 with a goal by Maddie Henderson. Olivia O'Brien scored with seven seconds remaining, her second goal of the game, to give the Patriots a 5-1 lead after one.
 
La Salle's Tori Rolon got the Explorers rolling with a hat trick to start the second period and Lola Quigley added a goal to even the match, 5-5, with 3:32 left in the half. Mason was scoreless in the second.
 
La Salle took its first lead of the game, 6-5, with 10:51 left in the third with a goal by Maddie Dachowski in a man-up situation. Mason responded a goal by Olivia Heaton, assisted by Shannon Tuozzo. The two teams traded goals for most of the period, but Mason's offense hit the back of the net three of the final four goals of the period to lead 9-8 heading into the final quarter.
 
Tuozzo tied the match, 7-7, with an assisted goal by Melanie Hutchinson. Mason regained the lead, 8-7, with a goal by O'Brien, her third of the game, with under two minutes in the stanza. Chloe Reed's free position shot with five seconds left ricocheted off the stick of McGroarty and was grabbed by Morgan Gunn who immediately scored at the buzzer.
 
In the final quarter, La Salle outscored the Patriots, 3-1. Explorers leading goal-scorer Emily Johnston, who was held in check by the Patriots, opened the frame with two straight goals. O'Brien tied up the match for the final time, 10-10, with 5:50 remaining in regulation, her team-leading fourth of the match. The Explorers won the draw and took one final shot that was saved by Meghan Deehan to keep Mason within reach with 2:44 remaining. After a Mason shot-clock violation with just over a minute left, La Salle made a clear and ran out the clock on the Patriots.
 
The Patriots were perfect on clears (11-11) today and caused havoc for the Explorers, who managed to clear only 13-of-18 attempts. Mason had eight caused turnovers led by O'Brien with three and Melanie Hutchinson with two. The Explorers had only four CTs.
 
Mason goalkeeper had 12 saves on 23 Explorers shots on goal in the setback.
 
The Patriots travel to Pittsburgh for a non-conference match against Pitt on Tuesday afternoon.