Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/10/18
Four Mountain Hawks posted hat tricks, six had multiple goals and five caused multiple turnovers as the Lehigh women’s lacrosse team picked up an impressive 18-5 season-opening win over St. Bonaventure on Saturday afternoon at the Ulrich Sports Complex.
The win was Lehigh’s 14th in its last 17 season openers dating back to 2002. Junior Mary Ellen Carron led the offense with four goals, marking the first four goals of her career, while freshman goalkeeper Samantha Sagi made seven saves in goal.
“I’m glad we could get the win at home here today,” said Lehigh head coach Jill Redfern (Ursinus grad). “I’m proud of our team for the number of goals that we scored. Our offense is willing to share the ball. We look for cutters on the inside really well. It took us a little while to solve some of their sliding on defense, but we got the job done.”
Along with Carron’s four goals, graduate student Julianne D’Orazio (Merion Mercy) filled up the stat sheet with three goals, four groundballs, four caused turnovers and five draw controls. Sophomore Sondra Dickey (Conestoga) tied a career high with five points behind three goals and a career-high two assists. Junior Haley Wentzel (Boyertown) scored three goals while junior Kellie Gough and sophomore Autumn Ryan each had two.
Defensively, senior Kierstyn Voiro (Moorestown) tallied four groundballs and two caused turnovers while junior Olivia Kelly had four groundballs and three caused turnovers. Senior Kayleen Kelly recorded six groundballs, three caused turnovers and three draw controls. Dickey added a game-high six draw controls, to go with her five points.
St. Bonaventure scored less than a minute into the contest, but Carron evened the score just 52 seconds later with her first-career goal, helping spark a 8-0 Lehigh run. Wentzel scored three goals in the run while Carron scored a second. Juniors Gough and Courtney Henig, and Dickey each had one.
In the end, Lehigh’s defense held the Bonnies scoreless for 21:21, but the Mountain Hawks responded with two of the final three goals of the half, from Carron and D’Orazio, to take a 10-3 advantage after 30 minutes of play.
With Lehigh leading 12-5 early in the second half, the Mountain Hawks erased any doubt by ending the game with six unanswered goals. As part of the run, Carron scored her fourth while D’Orazio had two goals and Ryan scored consecutive tallies. Dickey wrapped up the scoring in the final seconds for the 18-5 win.
Temple 12, Rutgers 8
Seniors Nicole Barretta (Downingtown East) and Kira Gensler (Spring-Ford) scored four goals apiece in leading the Owls to a season-opening home win against Rutgers on a rainy afternoon at Howarth Field. The Scarlet Knights scored first in the game, but the Owls answered with a 3-0 run and never trailed again.
Keys to the Game
> The Owls committed just 14 turnovers compared to 20 for Rutgers, helping negate a disadvantage on the draw (16-6 in favor of the Scarlet Knights).
> Twenty of Temple’s 25 shots were on target, while just 18 of Rutgers’ 32 total shots were on goal.
> Temple held an 8-4 lead at halftime, and scored the first three goals of the second half for its largest lead of 11-4.
> That seven-goal advantage was enough to withstand a late run by the Scarlet Knights, who scored four straight over a six-minute stretch and were within three, 11-8 with 5:18 remaining.
> The only goal in last five minutes was scored by Barretta, as the Owls’ defense ended the comeback hopes for Rutgers.
Individual Highlights
> Barretta’s eight total points were a career high, breaking her previous high by two. Her and Gensler made a strong team, with Barretta assisting on three of Gensler’s goals, and Gensler also recording an assist on one of Barretta’s goals.
> The hat trick for Gensler was the second of her career, with her four goals being a career high.
> Sophomore Maddie Gebert (Owen J. Roberts) scored twice for the Owls, while sophomore Olivia Thompson and junior Amber Lambeth (Souderton) added one goal apiece.
> Freshman Jackie Cerchio (Methacton) notched her first career assist, as did senior defender Nicole Latgis. Cerchio recorded four ground balls, while Latgis tallied three and led the Owls with two caused turnovers.
> In goal, sophomore Maryn Lowell came up with 10 saves and four ground balls.
Quotable
> “I’m thrilled with the results of the day, and equally about our effort and performance. I thought our team really just played within ourselves. Our goal was to keep our mentality in a place that was positive and stay very present all game, and we did a really great job with that. I couldn’t ask for a better start to the season.” – Temple head coach Bonnie Rosen
Georgetown 18, St. Joseph’s 15
The Hawks dropped a hard-fought match-up at Georgetown in their season opener at Cooper Field. The Hoyas used uncontested, five-goal runs in each half to stay marginally in front throughout the game.
Junior midfielder Rebecca Lane scored twice and dished out a team-high three assists for a team-high five points while in her collegiate debut, freshman attacker Stephanie Kelly tallied a team-high three goals (plus an assist) for her first collegiate hat trick.
Towson 14, Penn State 13
Junior Madison Carter tied her career-high with six goals, but it was not enough as the 19th-ranked Tigers held off No. 4 Penn State down the stretch to earn the victory in non-conference action from Johnny Unitas Stadium.
Down 14-9 after a Carly Tellekamp goal with 6:55 to play in the second half, Penn State (0-1) rallied behind senior captain Katie O’Donnell (Henderson) nearly earning the comeback victory.
Sophomore Maria Auth ripped home a free-position attempt and Carter finished out front after a brilliant feed from junior Kayla Brisolari for the 14-11 deficit with just 2:16 remaining.
O’Donnell then took over finding the back of the net with just 48 seconds remaining before collecting the ensuing draw and racing the entire length of the field to beat Tiger net-minder Kiley Keating low just 10 seconds later for the 14-13 score.
Brisolari won the draw again and got the ball down the field, but a great back-check by Sami Chenoweth just outside the eight-meter caused a turnover and Towson was able to hold the ball until the final horn to secure the victory.
After a rather slow start from both teams, Penn State opened the scoring at the 25:00 mark of the first half as Carter ripped home a free-position shot for the 1-0 lead.
However, Towson (1-0) came right back scoring three-straight goals from three separate players to grab the 3-1 lead before freshman Sophia Triandafils fired home her first collegiate tally for the 3-2 score at the 18:58 mark.
Carter and Auth would each add goals for the visitors, but Towson went on a 7-2 run over the next ten minutes to grab a commanding 10-4 lead after Gabby Cha’s third goal of the game at the 9:09 mark.
aO’Donnell found the back of the net off a free-position attempt at 6:44, but the Tigers came back again as Kaitlin Thornton gave Towson the 11-5 lead at 2:56, which they took with them into halftime.
Penn State came out of the intermission firing on all cylinders as Carter tipped the hat-trick and freshman Quinn Nicolai (Moorestown) each finished off passes from senior Shelby Wells just 28 seconds apart for the 11-7 deficit at the 24:42 mark.
Freshman Lucy Lowe earned the start in net for Penn State falling to 0-1 on the year after making three saves over the opening 19:53 before being lifted for sophomore Madison Cunningham who stopped five shots in just over 40 minutes played.
Keating earned the victory to move to 1-0 after a seven save performance for Towson.