Slippery Rock women’s basketball traveled to Erie on Saturday to finish off their season against the Mercyhurst University Lakers.
The Rock entered the matchup with a 2-22 overall record while going 2-19 in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) action. Last time out, SRU fell to Edinboro University 60-47 in their home finale.
The Lakers entered their senior day looking to clinch a home game in the upcoming PSAC tournament. They held a 17-10 record overall and 13-8 record in conference play, the same conference record as Edinboro.
Slippery Rock was hoping to avoid the season sweep at the hands of the Lakers. In their first matchup, Mercyhurst was victorious by a score of 66-41.
The Rock fell short to the Lakers again, this time by a score of 71-52. In possibly the final game of her collegiate career, Kristina Donza led all scorers with 20 points while grabbing three rebounds, dishing out one assist and collecting one steal.
Regan Atkins and Endya Robinson both added 10 points to support Donza. The 10-point effort brought Atkins’ season total to 381 points. She ends her freshman season third on SRU’s all-time freshman scoring list.
Kaylin Venick came away with two steals. She ends the season as The Rock’s leading takeaway artist with 29 total steals.
The two teams traded baskets for much of the first half after Mercyhurst jumped out to a 14-7 lead. Donza then hit two straight three-pointers to bring The Rock back within one.
The half ended with Slippery Rock trailing 30-26. The Lakers’ strong start to the second half proved to be the dagger for The Rock.
Mercyhurst had a balanced scoring attack where they had six players score at least seven points. The Lakers were led by Bailey Kuhns with 14 points. Allyson Ross and Julia Buchman also reached double-digits in scoring.
Slippery Rock now moves toward next season, where first-year head coach Ryenn Micaletti looks to build on this season and improve in year two.
