Box Score The No. 17 St. John Fisher College women's lacrosse team jumped out to a 3-0 lead over William Smith College and held on late for a 9-7 victory at the Cardinals' Growney Stadium for each team's season-opening game.

Fisher improves to 1-0 on the season while the Herons fall to 0-1. Sophomore Hannah Connolly led William Smith with three goals. Junior Katie Sipple chipped in a goal and an assist. Junior Rachel Hughes shared a team-high with four ground balls and notched a team-high four caused turnovers. First-year Sarah Honan played all 60 minutes in goal and finished with 12 saves. She also picked up four ground balls.

Hughes and Emily Bryerton led St. John Fisher with three goals each. Chrissy Cook registered two goals, and Erin Ward chipped in a goal and an assist. Tori Suto grabbed a game-high six ground balls. Caroline Trpcevski played all 60 minutes in goal and made seven saves.

With Fisher leading 8-7 at the 2:38 mark it appeared as if the Herons had tied the score, however the goal was disallowed due to an illegal stick. Taylor Hughes responded less than 15 seconds later for the final.

Cook notched the Cardinals first two goals of the game, the first coming 10 minutes into the contest off a free position. She followed it up less than a minute later with an unassisted goal.

The Cardinals increased their lead to 3-0 when Jordan Johnson connected with Hughes for the tally. With 8:54 left in the first, first-year Abbey Foote scored her first collegiate goal cut the Cardinals lead to 3-1.

Fisher recorded its second free position goal of the game late in the half as Bryerton notched her first of the year. Connolly found the back of the net to make it 4-2 at the break.

The Herons cut Fisher's lead to a one goal margin to start out the second half but Fisher scored the next three goals over a three minute span to open up its largest lead of the game at 7-3. Erin Ward started the run followed by Bryerton and Hughes scoring their second goals of the contest.

William Smith would prove to be resilient though, scoring the next two goals to make it 7-5 early in the second half. Sophomore Meg Hannan struck first 33 seconds in and after three St. John Fisher goals, Sipple and Connolly found the back of the net a little over two minutes apart. 

Bryerton scored the next goal, her third of the game, to give Fisher an 8-5 lead.  The Herons fought back to an 8-7 contest on goals by Connolly and first-year Geneva Waite, before Hughes sealed the win for Fisher.

The Cardinals held a 26-18 advantage in shots and a 31-24 edge in ground balls. William Smith was successful on 16-of-24 clear attempts. St. John Fisher finished 17-of-26 clear attempts.

The Herons will be back in action on Wednesday, March 5, when they host Cortland for their first home game of the season at 4 p.m. on Boswell Field.