Mount de Sales sails past the Mercy Magic with a 15-8 win to notch the "B" Conference Lacrosse title
by Derek Toney
What a difference a year made for Mount de Sales lacrosse.
After a last place finish in 2024, the Sailors flipped the script, claiming the IAAM B Conference crown Saturday evfening with a 15-8 victory over Mercy at USA Lacrosse’s Tierney Field.
Junior attack Grace Herman scored four goals for Mount de Sales (9-7 overall), and Grace Powers finished with three goals and three assists. Mackenzie Conley also had a hat trick for the second-seeded Sailors.
Mount de Sales led wire-to-wire Saturday, denying top-seed Mercy a perfect season in the B and giving the Catonsville school its first IAAM lacrosse championship.
It was redemption for the Sailors, who won one game in the A Conference play (five overall) last spring.
“It’s been an insane year. This team has worked so hard these past few months,” said Mount de Sales senior goalie Mary Beth Zaleski. “What made the difference is our energy and togetherness. I’ve seen so much grit.”
“They were beaten down last year,” Mount de Sales coach Amy Donahue said. “This year, our goal from the very beginning was to win the championship here. To me, it says that the girls have grown. Every game they’ve grown and they’ve learned from their mistakes.”
The Sailors won three A Conference games the prior two seasons. They didn’t lower the throttle this season, playing eventual A finalist Archbishop Spalding and Severn School. Mount de Sales also played state public powerhouse Manchester Valley, the area’s No. 1 team, Severna Park (defending Class 3A state champ) and Northern Virginia private school power St. Stephens & St. Agnes School.
“The scores showed we had a rough season, but we stuck around in most of the A games,” said Powers. “We were really upset about moving down so our goal from the very start of the season was to win the championship. Our confidence had to be high.”
The Sailors were locked in Saturday against Mercy, which beat them by a goal during the regular season. Mount de Sales scored six unanswered goals to claim a 7-1 advantage midway through the opening half before settling for a 8-3 halftime lead.
“We watched film,” Donahue said. “We knew we really needed to slide, and worked a lot on guarding 1-on-1s. We held them 1-on-1 pretty well, and we really cut well and fed well in the first half. Just getting that start where everybody was shooting, everyone was scoring, just gave the girls confidence.”
Mount de Sales didn’t blink after Mercy won the first three draws of the second half and pulled to 8-5. The Sailors got a goal and an assist from Powers and Herman and Maddie Sabatelli each tallied, pushing their advantage to 11-5, entering the fourth.
The onslaught continued with back-to-back goals from senior Mallie Mundorf, putting Mount de Sales up eight goals. Four players recorded multiple goals.
Senior midfielder Calleigh Hayes posted a game-high five goals for Mercy (12-2), looking to return to the top of B after spending the previous two seasons in the A. The Magic, who won four B titles between 2017-2022, hadn’t lost in nearly two months before Saturday.
Mercy coach Brian Casserly said Zaleski (six saves) set the tone with a couple of early stops. Then, Mount de Sales’ offense imposed their will.
“They only scored seven in the first game, but to explode for 15…they were unreal,” said Casserly. “They just executed…they were able to get cutters open up top. We probably weren’t on the feeder’s hands enough early and allowed them to make in the feeds in the middle. Once they were open, they buried it.”
The Sailors got extra motivation a few weeks ago when the basketball team was honored for its B Conference championship with a banner inside the school’s gymnasium.
It was a full circle moment Saturday for Conley, who also played on the Sailors’ basketball squad.
“It’s been an awesome senior year,” said Conley, who will attend the University of Notre Dame in the fall and play lacrosse. “We had a chip on our shoulders as soon as we stepped on the field in the spring…there’s no reason why we shouldn’t win a championship. Day in and day out that was the main goal.”