The St. Thomas Aquinas College Field Hockey team took a 3-1 decision over the Mercy College Mavericks on Saturday afternoon at Spartan Field in Sparkill, NY.

Prior to the contest, the Spartans honored its graduating senior class; Briannah Thorne, Kerry Conlon, Meaghan Burke, Kaitlyn Gutenberger and Taylor Hickey with on-field ceremonies, which included the athletes' families and college administrators.

In first quarter action, STAC was able to get on the board via a Lisa Larsson strike 9:16 into the opening frame, making it 1-0 for the maroon and gold. The slim margin would stand up through two quarters of play as the teams would trade chances with no additional scoring taking place before the halftime buzzer.

After the break, St. Thomas Aquinas would quickly extend their lead to 2-0 on the strength of a Lotte Strijbos tally with the assist going to Kerry Conlon just fifty five seconds into the third quarter. Five minutes later, Briannah Thorne would be awarded a penalty stroke, which she would put top shelf past Mavericks goalie Lauren Viscione to push the advantage to 3-0 in favor of the Spartans. Mercy College would break the shutout with just over three minutes left in the quarter, as Katie Kreider would pick up the goal with the assist going to Alyssa Sacco, cutting the lead to 3-1 STAC after forty-five minutes of play.

The fourth quarter would see Mercy College attempt to turn up the offensive pressure in the hopes of rallying back, down two goals. However, Spartan goalie Jessie Hohenstein and her teammates would deny any chances of a comeback on this special day for their seniors, and the game would end with a 3-1 win for STAC.

The victory gets the maroon and gold to the .500 mark at 7-7 overall and 5-5 in the NE-10 with four games left in the regular season.

STAC goalie Suzanne Clarke (W, 6-7) made 2 stops in 45 minutes of action and Jessie Hohenstein picked up 1 save in the final 15 minutes of the contest. Meanwhile, Lauren Viscione (L, 3-8) went the distance and had 3 saves for Mercy.

St. Thomas Aquinas held a slim 9-7 shots advantage, while Mercy had an 8-2 edge in penalty corners.

STAC next turns their attention to American International College, as the Yellow Jackets pay a visit to Spartan Field on Wednesday, October 23rd. The matchup gets underway at 3pm in Sparkill.