The St. Thomas Aquinas College women's soccer team came up short in a 3-2 East Coast Conference loss to Mercy College at Spartan Field. The Lady Spartans dropped to 3-8 on the season and 0-4 in conference play, while Mercy remained undefeated in the ECC at 4-0 while improving to 7-2 overall.

Mercy struck first when Alyssa Iannuzzi's header off a corner kick put the visitors in a 1-0 lead after 16:30 of play. Nicole Rivera answered with her first of two on the day just under four minutes later, when she took a feed from Francesca Giglio and turned in a nice move before hitting the corner of the net to tie the game at 20.26.

As the half progressed, the Mavericks grabbed the advantage, with several stellar saves by STAC netminder Courtney Dumain keeping the game deadlocked. With exactly five minutes to go before the break, another corner kick proved big for Mercy, with Stephanie Escala's header making the score 2-1.

Hayley Noble's seventh goal of the season at 53:57 provided Mercy some cushion at 3-1, but the feisty Lady Spartans wasted little time in responding. Off a Mavericks offside, Dumain's free kick found Rivera, who converted her league-leading eighth goal of the season at 55:00 to draw the hosts within one.

That lead was to hold up, however, as the visitors had an 18-11 edge in shots on the afternoon, with Dumain recording 10 saves to give her team an opportunity at the upset.

The Lady Spartans travel to Felician University for a non-league contest this Wednesday, October 5, before hosting Molloy College in an ECC battle at noon on Saturday, October 8 at Spartan Field.