Arlington, Va. – Marymount University's women's basketball team won its season opener with a 73-57 victory over visiting Bridgewater (Va.) in the opening round of the Marymount Tip-Off Tournament on Friday night.  The Saints advance to face Christopher Newport in the championship game on Saturday.

Senior All-American Katelyn Fischer led the Saints (1-0) with a game-high 23 points to go with a game-best seven assists, four steals and three rebounds.  She went 8-for-12 from the field while knocking down 3-of-5 shots from beyond the arc.

Freshman Kievanna Lacey added 17 points in her impressive collegiate debut while senior Tynisha Parks chipped in 12 points to go with eight boards.  Samantha Kane hauled in a team-high nine rebounds for Marymount.

Lacey wasn't the only rookie for the Blue and White to have a solid debut.  Aileen Maknati scored seven points, Miranda Krott had six rebounds and Delia Ruttum nabbed three steals.

The Saints were on fire in the opening frame, shooting 57.7 percent from the floor and converting on half of their three-point attempts.  Marymount led by as many as 20 in the stanza before taking a 38-21 lead into halftime.

Coming out of the break, Bridgewater (0-1) would slowly chip away at the MU lead until it reached single digits at 56-47 with 7:54 remaining.  The Eagles managed to hover around a 10-point deficit for the next few minutes until a Fischer trifecta at the 1:28 mark gave the Saints a 70-56 lead and closed the door on any thought of late Bridgewater comeback.

Jessica Mullen led the Eagles with 18 points while Katelynn Hottinger added 16.  Shannan Thorne led all players with 13 rebounds.

Bridgewater will face Gettysburg in the consolation game of the tournament on Saturday at 5 p.m.  Gettysburg lost 56-46 to Christopher Newport in its first round game.

Marymount and CNU will battle for the championship at 7:30 p.m.  Fans can follow both games live by logging on to www.marymount.edu/athletics/wBasketball and selecting the "live stats" and "live video" links.