STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Katelyn Catanese (Huntington, N.Y./St. Anthony's) scored five goals including a natural hat trick in the first half to lift Mount St. Mary's past Wagner 19-8 in Northeast Conference (NEC) women's lacrosse action on Saturday. With the win coupled with Quinnipiac's 12-11 double-overtime win against Robert Morris, the Mount clinched its seventh-straight NEC Tournament appearance.

Catanese helped get the Mountaineers (6-9, 6-1 NEC) off to a fast track by scoring three of the first four goals of the afternoon. The senior scored three-straight goals in a span of three minutes and five seconds in the first 10 minutes of the game. She added a goal midway through the first half and a tally in the second half to finish the match with five markers.

Brianna Gauthier (Severna Park, Md./St. Mary's) notched a career-high four goals and three assists while Ashley Johnson (Arvada, Colo./Arvada West), Kathleen Rossetti (Perry Hall, Md./Perry Hall) and Jen Semler (Baltimore, Md./Perry Hall) each found the twine twice in the winning effort.

Carolyn Clark paced the Seahawks (4-9, 3-3 NEC) with two goals and an assist while Kelly Blundin chipped in a marker and a helper in the loss.

Mount St. Mary's jumped out to the early advantage and never looked back for its fifth-straight win against the Staten Island program.

Rossetti got the scoring started on an 8-meter tally 56 seconds into the match. Catanese then took over in a span of three minutes and five seconds to notch a natural hat trick. The senior started her run with an unassisted tally at 5:02 and then scored off feeds from Gauthier at 5:58 and 7:07 for a 4-0 advantage.

Wagner answered with back-to-back goals when Krista Malayter scored off a Blundin pass at 11:11 before Blundin found the twine off a Clark assist at 12:48 to trim the margin to 4-2.

Mount St. Mary's responded quickly with two goals of its own to reclaim a four-goal edge. Johnson scored off an Alexis Salerno (South Setauket, N.Y./Ward Melville) feed at 13:09 before Gauthier notched her first score of the day unassisted 41 seconds later.

After Lauren Petrick posted an unassisted goal at 16:25, the Mount rolled off three unanswered goals to take a 9-3 lead. Catanese (17:40), Rossetti (23:57) and Gauthier (25:46) each notched a tally in the run.

The two teams then traded scores twice to end the half with Mount St. Mary's holding an 11-5 margin at halftime. Clark stopped the Mount's string of three-straight goals unassisted at 26:14 before Kelly Taylor (Bel Air, Md./Bel Air) found the twine off a Jackie Kearney (Baltimore, Md./Seton Keough) assist with 1:38 left in the stanza. Cara Gonzalez struck right back for the Seahawks unassisted nine seconds later before Semler notched her first marker of the afternoon with seven ticks on the clock to give the Mountaineers a six-goal advantage at the break.

Salerno started the scoring in the second half on a free-position attempt at 30:50 before Karen Vitkus found Clark at 34:16. After Catanese posted her fifth goal of the day off a pass from Lucy Pompa (Baltimore, Md./Bryn Mawr) at 35:34, Jessica Richmond made it a six-goal difference unassisted at 41:59.

The Mount then rolled off six of the final seven tallies to go on for the 19-8 victory. After Nicole Price (White Hall, Md./North Harford) started a 3-0 run unassisted at 46:53, Gauthier scored off an Esther Rufalo (Woodstock, Md./Chapelgate Christian Academy) at 48:22 before the senior dished out a helper on Johnson's second goal 16 seconds later.

Melanie Garcia momentarily halted the Mount St. Mary's offensive outburst at 52:05, but Rufalo, Semler and Gauthier each scored in the final three minutes to seal the win and help the Mount earn a spot in its 10th NEC Tournament.

Brigid McTavish (Mount Airy, Md./South Hagerstown) and Erin Kelly (Derwood, Md./Magruder) each had two saves in a half of play while Amy Jones made six saves in 17:40 minutes and Alex Johnston had four saves in 42:20 minutes.

Along with her seven points, Gauthier added three ground balls, two caused turnovers and a draw control. Aly Jost (Abingdon, Md./Bel Air) registered three ground balls and two caused turnovers and Stephanie Hilton (Poolesville, Md./Poolesville) added two ground balls and two caused turnovers.

Johnson moved into 11th place on the program's all-time goal list with 83, one shy of joining the Top-10.

Mount St. Mary's concludes the regular season at Robert Morris on Apr. 19. Game time is 12 p.m. With a win, the Mount will clinch at least a share of the NEC regular season title.