LYNDHURST, N.J. – The Felician University softball team has become the eighth Golden Falcon program to return to play after the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference shut down all intercollegiate competition due to the COVID-19 pandemic nearly one year ago. Playing for the first time since Mar. 9, 2020, the Golden Falcons hosted Molloy College on Thursday in a non-conference doubleheader at the Lyndhurst Recreation Complex.

"It's exciting to finally pick up where we left off," said Felician co-captain Nicole Spiegelberg (Blauvelt, N.Y./Tappan Zee). "We have a bunch of new players and I feel like we can really have some fun and do amazing things together this year."

In the season openers for both schools, Molloy emerged victorious twice on Thursday. The Lions claimed a 6-2 Game 1 victory, then took the nightcap, 13-5 in five innings. Spiegelberg was 3 for 4 plus two walks and senior second baseman C.J. Apacible (Long Beach, Calif./Lakewood) also collected three hits on the day for Felician.

Molloy took an early Game 1 lead on a two-run first-inning home run by senior pitcher Courtney Greene (East Islip, N.Y./East Islip). Felician sliced the deficit in half when Vienna Chierchia (Manalapan, N.J./Manalapan) drove Greene's first pitch of the game over the right-center field fence, but the Lions plated two more runs in the second. Marissa Nicoletti (Garden City South, N.Y./Carey) led off with a homer, and Chrissie Huhn (Croydon, Pa./Truman) singled home a run.

A longball by Spiegelberg in the third drew the Golden Falcons to within 4-2, but Greene held off the Felician offense for the remainder of the game. Felician left three runners on base and had another caught stealing over the final four frames, and Molloy scored single runs in the sixth and seventh for the final margin.

Apacible, who had a triple, and freshman shortstop Mia Martinez (Bronx, N.Y./The Ursuline School), who doubled, joined Spiegelberg with two hits each for Felician. Molloy's Greene struck out four batters and walked one in a complete-game effort, and was 2 for 4.

Game 2 saw the sides combine for 27 hits. Felician, however, left nine runners on base, while the Lions posted multiple runs in four of their five offensive innings. The game was tied, 3-3, after one stanza. Molloy took the lead for good in the second on a RBI double by Greene, who started in left field, then tallied three more times in the third.

The Golden Falcons came back to within 6-3 following Johanna Rivera's (Cliffside Park, N.J./Mount St. Dominic Academy) run-scoring single in the bottom of the third. But Molloy's offense stayed hot. The Lions scored twice in the fourth, then a two-run home run by Amanda King (Guilford, Conn./Guilford) capped a four-run fifth-inning uprising. Felician received an RBI groundout from Chierchia in the home half of the fifth, but when Molloy pitcher Tonianne Larson (Long Beach, N.Y./Long Beach) followed with a strikeout, the game ended on the NCAA's eight-run rule.

Huhn and Akemi Poyer (Elmont, N.Y./Elmont) had three hits each as part of Molloy's 17-hit attack. Freshman center fielder Daisha Howard (Westbury, N.Y./Kellenberg Memorial) was 2 for 3 with a triple and two runs scored for the Golden Falcons.

Felician was back in action on Friday with a 2 p.m. doubleheader at Adelphi University.