The Misericordia University women's lacrosse team dropped a hard-fought 7-6 decision to FDU-Florham in a battle of MAC Freedom unbeatens, Saturday evening at Mangelsdorf Field.

Kaila Quinlivan scored three goals for the Cougars and Olivia Garcia added a goal and two assists.  Emily Connell and Lexee Willey both added goals and Liz Mulvey had a pair of goals as the Cougars overcame an early 4-0 deficit.

Bri Ladner had three draw controls and two caused turnovers and Katie McLoughlin had 15 saves, three ground balls and three caused turnovers.

The teams traded turnovers throughout the opening minutes as both squads played aggressive defense.  The Devils took a 1-0 lead on the first shot of the game with 23:12 left in the first half and made it 2-0 with a free position goal six minutes later.

The Cougars finally got their first shot of the game with 11:10 to go in the first half, but Garcia's shot was saved.  FDU added two more free position goals to go up 4-0 late in the first half.

Connell took a pass in front from Mulvey behind the cage and bounced a shot in to get MU on the board with 4:15 left in the half.

Garcia found Quinlivan cutting across the lane less than a minute later and she bounced in a shot to make it 4-2.  McLoughlin made a key save on a FDU breakaway in the final minute of the half.

Quinlivan sandwiched a pair of second-half goals around tallies by Willey and Garcia as MU went ahead 6-4 with 15:28 to play.

McLoughlin came up big again early in the second half when she stopped a free position attempt.

Quinlivan took a pass from Garcia, spun and fired a low shot get within a goal, 4-3, nearly five minutes into the second half.

Mulvey found Willey from behind the cage and she whipped a shot inside the right post to tie the game, 4-4.

McLoughlin thwarted another free position shot with 19:00 remaining and the FDU goalie answered with a nice save on Willey-Garcia two-on-one opportunity.

Garcia put a free position shot in the upper right corner to give MU its first lead, 5-4, with 17:36 to play.

Quinlivan came from behind the net and stuffed a shot inside the left post to put MU ahead, 6-4.

The Devils rallied to score three goals over the final 13:24.

Misericordia fell to 9-3 overall and 4-1 in the MAC Freedom.  MU will host Delaware Valley, Wednesday.