NIAGARA UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS
GUILDFORD, England – Niagara women’s lacrosse head coach Wendy Stone and assistant coach Alice Mercer earned gold medals with Team USA women’s lacrosse, which defeated Team Canada 10-5 in the final game of the 2017 FIL Rathbones Women’s Lacrosse World Cup on Saturday.
Mercer and the American defense kept the Team Canada offense in check, holding their opponents to just two goals in the game’s first 45 minutes as USA took an 8-1 lead. Three consecutive tallies from Canada made it a four-goal game in the closing minutes, but USA added two late goals to seal the World Cup victory.
Mercer was credited with two ground balls in the championship game. She totaled 12 ground balls, five draw controls, and four caused turnovers as the American team went 8-0 en route to World Cup gold.
Stone, in her ninth year as the team manager for Team USA, wins her third World Cup as a member of the American coaching staff in addition to the team’s 2009 and 2013 World Cup wins. As the head coach at Niagara, Stone will enter her sixth season leading the Purple Eagles in 2018. She has guided the team to three straight appearances in the MAAC Women’s Lacrosse Championships, and in 2017 she led the team to its first MAAC semifinal appearance since 2003.
Mercer, who recently completed her first season as an assistant coach at Niagara after a four-year playing career at the University of Maryland, adds a World Cup gold medal to an impressive list of accolades as a player. A two-time NCAA champion at Maryland, Mercer was the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year in 2016 and she was also a finalist for the prestigious Tewaaraton Award, given annually to the top collegiate lacrosse players.
