The Misericordia University women's lacrosse team opened the season with a tough 12-11 loss at Albright, Wednesday afternoon.

Kaila Quinlivan led the Cougars with two goals and four assists while Meaghan Whalen scored four goals in her collegiate debut.

Amy Roth scored twice and Ashley Hobbs, Olivia Garcia and Emily Connell all added a goal.

Quinlivan added four ground balls, four caused turnovers and three draw controls while Brianna Ladner had a team-high seven draw controls.

Lauren Weitzel had four ground balls for MU and Jenn Gazdick had 12 saves in goal.

Whalen scored twice in 63 seconds to give Misericordia an 8-6 lead midway through the second half, but Albright used a pair of three-goal spurts to come-from-behind.

Trailing 12-10, Roth got MU within one with 2:50 to play and the Cougars had two shots to tie in the final 30 seconds.

Albright took a 3-1 lead 12 minutes into the game, but the Cougars answered with five straight goals to take a 5-3 halftime lead.

Connell scored to open the second half, but Albright scored three straight to pull even 6-6.

Whelan struck for two quick goals to give MU an 8-6 lead, but the Lions again scored three straight to take a 9-8 lead.

Hobbs and Whelan both scored off Quinlivan assists less than a minute apart to put MU back in front, 10-9, with 10:46 remaining.

Albright rallied for three goals in a two-minute span to take the lead for good.

The Cougars will travel to Susquehanna, Saturday at 11:00.