Washington, D.C. – Marymount University's men's lacrosse team won its 2014 season opener with a 9-7 victory at Catholic on Wednesday night.  The win is the third-straight to open the season for the Saints and the second in-a-row over their former Capital Athletic Conference rival Cardinals.

Jimmy Wendell led the Saints (1-0) with three goals for a hat-trick while Connor Kellogg added two goals and a pair of assists.  Michael Mene, Nico Burns, Chad Niergarth and Matt Justice each added a goal with both Wendell and Max Johnson chipping in an assist. 

A back-and-forth first quarter saw Catholic (0-1) take the initial lead nearly four minutes in before Kellogg tied things up with his first goal three minutes later.  The Cardinals added another goal at the 6:45 mark and the period looked to stay the course until the final two minutes.

With just under three minutes to play, the Saints took advantage of a crucial series of CUA penalties that gave the Blue and White a man-up advantage for nearly the rest of the quarter.  Not wasting the opportunity, Justice hit a man-up goal with to tie things up before Burns notched his goal with 18 seconds remaining to put MU up 3-2 after the first. 

In the second, Catholic knotted the score at 3-3 at the 12:23 mark before Wendell scored his first goal to put the Saints back on top with 6:16 remaining as MU took a 4-3 lead going into halftime.

Marymount took control in the third quarter, outscoring the Cardinals 3-2 in the frame. With Catholic tying the game early in the frame, the Saints responded with three-straight goals to take a 7-4 lead with 3:20 left in the period.  Catholic wouldn't allow the game to get away, scoring a late goal in the quarter to cut its deficit to 7-5 going into the final stage.

With nearly six minutes of scoreless play to start the fourth, CUA made its move with a goal at the 9:13 mark to make it a 7-6 game.  Kellogg then gave the Saints some breathing room his second goal of the game with five minutes to play before Mene let MU exhale by giving the Blue and White a 9-6 lead with 1:23 remaining.

Defensively, Derek DiGiovanni led the Saints with 24 saves between the pipes.  Chris Madison collected four ground balls to go with two caused turnovers while Johnson added three ground balls.  Burns, Garrett Satterwhite, Max Rwose and Tyler DaSilva each chipped in a pair of GBs. 

William Cowan led Catholic with two goals.

Marymount returns to action on Saturday as it hosts The University of the District of Columbia in its home opener.  Game time is set for 3:30 p.m. at Long Bridge Park in Arlington.