Arlington, Va. – Marymount University's men's lacrosse team fell to rival Catholic 13-9 in its season opener on Saturday.

Senior midfielder Jeff Cook paced the Saints (0-1) with four goals while freshman attack Connor Kellogg also notched a hat-trick with three goals in his collegiate debut. Senior midfielders Tom Anderson and Fran Turella also scored for MU while junior attack Drew Phillips logged a pair of assists.

Defensively, junior goalkeeper Ross Fernandez saved 16 shots while the defensive backline cut the Cardinals second half scoring down by more than half its output from the opener. In addition, the Saints allowed just one goal in six man-down situations.

Kellogg, Fernandez, junior Mike Smith and freshman Vince Lodato all collected three ground balls for the Saints. Junior Mike Quick led all Saints with a pair of caused turnovers.

Both squads kept a high-scoring first half highly competitive with back-and-forth scoring. Catholic (1-0) jumped on the board first in the opening minute before Kellogg responded 56 seconds later with his first career goal. Trading goals down the stretch in the first quarter, the Cardinals would take a 5-3 lead going into the second frame.

Coming out of the brief break, Jeff Cook scored his third goal of the game to pull the Saints back within one. Catholic responded with a pair of goals by Jimmy Sinnott, including one in a man-up situation, to give CUA its biggest lead of the game at 7-4.

Marymount and the Cardinals continued to swap goals through the rest of the stanza and into the third period. Catholic would notch consecutive scores in the third to go up 11-7, a deficit the Saints couldn't find their way out of.

Sinnott led the Cardinals with five goals while Chris Fuccillo added three to go with three assists. Catholic keeper Sean McKenna collected 15 saves in the win.

Marymount returns to action on Thursday as it hosts Kean at Wakefield HS at 8 p.m.