Inspired Wins for Jacksonville, Mercer After Slow Starts in 2025

Jacksonville defender Maggie Cuddy’s eyes welled up as the final horn sounded at Rock Stadium on Saturday. While the Dolphins secured their second win of the season in a 10-9 upset of then-No. 19 Navy, Cuddy wasn’t overcome with emotion because of the result.

“The mindset of this game was we weren’t playing to win; we were playing for Lucy,” Cuddy said.

During the 2022 season, the Dolphins named Lucy Donmoyer — a 6-year-old childhood cancer patient — an honorary co-captain. Donmoyer attended team events, practices and games, with the players embracing her as one of their own. On September 26, 2023, Donmoyer died after a three-year battle with high-risk Neuroblastoma. She was eight years old.

In Donmoyer’s honor, Jacksonville labeled its Saturday clash with the Midshipmen the “Lucy Strong” game. The Dolphins donned pink shirts in warmups, flew a “Lucy Strong” flag and sported pink braids and shoelaces.

They decorated their locker room to encapsulate Donmoyer’s memory. There, the team celebrated its most momentous victory of the young season.

“We were playing for something bigger than ourselves,” Cuddy said. “We were playing for our team, which is our family, and we were playing for Lucy’s family — who is also a part of our family.”

Jacksonville coach Tara Singleton took over the program before the 2023 season. The prior year, the team had “adopted” Donmoyer, and Singleton said she was “lucky” to walk into a culture that forged significant love through hardship.

Singleton’s staff gives out a Lucy Strong Crown award at the end of each week to a player who embodies “strength, courage, tenacity and joy,” Singleton added.

“Whenever she was around us, we knew her struggles, but you would never know it based on the way she carried herself, attacked every day, celebrated every moment — every tiny little joyful thing,” Singleton said. “She celebrated like it meant the world to her, and she meant the world to us.”

While Cuddy said the Dolphins play for Donmoyer whenever they step on the field, Jacksonville had constant reminders of its late honorary teammate throughout Saturday’s game. As Donmoyer’s family watched on, attacker Shae Hagan — a freshman who never personally met Lucy — felt the game’s significance fuel her.

With 16 seconds remaining, Hagan buried her third goal of the afternoon to secure the shock upset. Hagan’s heroics helped a Jacksonville team that lost its first four games of the season knock off a legitimate Patriot League contender.

“[Hagan] is such a gem of a human, and she’s just a baller on the field,” Singleton said. “Her potential, I don’t even think we’ve remotely tapped into it. It has been a joy to have her find her footing on the field.”

As the Dolphins head toward ASUN play in late March, Singleton said the team is laser focused on securing a conference title. Although Saturday marked Jacksonville’s 2025 Lucy Strong game, Singleton said her squad will look to emulate Donmoyer’s strength at every turn.

“Perspective is everything,” Singleton said. “The opportunity we have to continue sharing Lucy’s story, still having her part of the fabric that is Jacksonville lacrosse, is something we strive to do on the regular.”

Mercer Tames the Tigers

Less than a month ago, Mercer fell 19-7 to Vanderbilt on its home field. The Feb. 19 defeat marked the Bears’ third straight loss to start the 2025 season, as well as a major inflection point for coach Samantha Eustace’s squad.

“There are other teams [where] having that beginning of the season outcome could really derail a season,” Mercer attacker Caroline Glus said. “Instead of letting it consume us, we pushed back and said, ‘This is not how we want to play.’ We decided as a group to collectively make the changes we needed to.”

Just 20 days after seemingly striking a low-point, the Bears rewrote program history Tuesday, knocking off No. 11 Clemson 11-10.

The victory was Mercer’s first-ever win over a ranked opponent and a new milestone for Eustace in her 10th season at the program’s helm.

That was fun 😆#GoBears pic.twitter.com/Kb4tA6j36Z

— Mercer Women's Lacrosse (@MercerWLAX) March 12, 2025

“I can tell them until they’re blue in the face that they’re good enough to do that,” Eustace said. “Until they do it, it doesn’t matter what I say. Now believing even more just gives us that confidence piece and a nice boost for us.”

Heading into the game, Eustace studied how both Duke and Syracuse face guarded Clemson attacker Kayla MacLeod. The Bears opted against face guarding the Tewaaraton Award watch list member, and their defense stood tall, holding MacLeod to just two goals.

On the attacking end, Glus grabbed four consecutive first-quarter goals in a seven-minute span to help Mercer build a 5-2 lead in the first 15 minutes. Meanwhile, the Bears’ veteran goalkeeper, Kayla Casey, racked up three of her season-high 12 saves in a steady opening frame.

“The great part about that [run] was that a lot of [the goals] started from our defensive stops,” Glus said. “Kayla had an unbelievable game, and our defensive unit was working so well together that a lot of the goals started from transition moments.”

At halftime, Mercer held a 7-3 advantage.

“I’m sure some people saw the score and thought there was something wrong with it, if they weren’t paying attention and watching,” Eustace quipped.

Although the Tigers launched a 4-0 run to tie the game just 16 seconds into the final quarter, the Bears’ upset effort carried enough fuel to provide yet another emphatic response. With the game tied 10-10 as the clock ticked under five minutes of regulation, midfielder Ansley Waters appeared to convert a go-ahead-goal.

While the officials initially signaled for a dangerous shot, a lengthy review overturned the call and gave Waters her third goal of the game.

Clemson came inches away from sending the game to overtime, but attacker Lindsey Marshall’s free position shot struck the post in the final seconds as Mercer celebrated perhaps the season’s most shocking upset.

“It’s a culmination of the players that came before and the continued development of our program,” Eustace said. “We’re going to take some confidence from this and continue to plug along. [We’ll] try to use this to win another Big South Championship this year.”

By the Numbers

8 • School-record tying assists for Frannie Hahn in Florida’s 14-13 comeback win over Navy.

7 • Consecutive wins for No. 18 Ohio State to start the season, marking the program’s first-ever 7-0 start.

4 • Times in the past five Princeton games that a Tiger attacker has set or matched a single-game program scoring record following McKenzie Blake’s eight-goal outing against Rutgers on Wednesday.

88.9 • Madison Taylor’s shooting percentage against Marquette on Friday, with the Northwestern attacker scoring eight goals on nine shots.