Florida 21, Kennesaw State 6
KENNESAW, Ga. – No. 8 Florida team put up a dominating offensive performance against Kennesaw State, defeating the Owls 21-6 on Wednesday afternoon.
Eleven Gators scored during the game, led by four goals from Grace Haus. Shannon Kavanagh and Brianna Harris both registered a hat trick, while Kaala Puglisi, Emerson Cabrera and Hannah Mardiney each pitched in two on the day.
Jill Quigley, Lexie Morton, Lexi Ashby and Shelton Sawers each registered a goal of their own – the first collegiate of each of their careers. Madisyn Kittell grabbed her first goal of the season and her 28th overall.
The team racked up eight assists, including two from Harris and two from Quigley.
The Gators won the draw circle, recording 19 draw controls on the day. Kavanagh notched a team-high six, followed by three from Emily Heller. Lexi Ashby and Maddie McMaster both notched a career-high two draw controls as well.
Defensively, Florida limited Kennesaw State's leading scorers (Siena and Marissa Gore) to just 3-of-11 shooting. UF caused five turnovers on the afternoon, led by two from Cara Trombetta.
Sarah Reznick posted seven saves and allowed only four goals in 46:24 of play, notching a .636 save percentage. Kenzii Kittell recorded one save in her 13:36 in the cage.
The Gators are back in action on Saturday as the team welcomes No. 3 Stony Brook. Opening draw is set for 12 p.m. at Donald R. Dizney Stadium.
East Carolina 12, Longwood 7
GREENVILLE, N.C. — An early lead helped East Carolina cruise to its program-record fourth-straight victory as the Pirates handled Longwood 12-7 on Wednesday afternoon in Johnson Stadium.
ECU improves to 4-1 on the season and the Pirates have now won consecutive games against teams they had been unable to defeat during their first two seasons. Longwood falls to 1-3 on the year.
ECU's fast start came courtesy of Nicole LeGar, who not only won the opening draw for the Pirates, but bagged the opening goal as well. The Pirates extended their lead to 3-0 through Ally Stanton, who grabbed goals at the 26:49 and 19:47 marks.
Longwood finally got on the scoreboard with 16:18 left in the first-half when Kaylen Karnes scored a goal as Longwood had a man-advantage. But ECU responded, with LeGar getting a free-position goal and then MacKell Schultes scoring when ECU had a man-advantage of its own. Kailtin Lucarelli scored for Longwood with 5:51 left in the first-half, but ECU finished the opening 30 minutes with two more goals, one each from Megan Pallozzi and Megan Tryniski. That made it 7-2 at the halftime break.
Stanton came rocketing out of the locker room, scoring two goals in the opening minute of the second half. That gave her four goals on the day and put ECU up 9-2, its biggest lead of the day.
After Stanton's opening salvo, neither team could get much momentum going in the second half. The two teams combined for seven yellow cards in the final 30 minutes, which further hurt the flow of the game.
ECU finished with a 38-21 advantage in shots, a slight 11-10 edge in draw controls and picked up 16 ground balls to 10 for Longwood. The Pirates shot 5-of-10 on free-position shots and went 18-of-22 on clears while Longwood was 3-of-9 from the eight-meter arc and 20-of-26 on clears.
Stanton led the Pirates with five points on four goals and an assist while LeGar and Pallozzi each had a pair of goals.
Schultes finished with a goal and two assists while Tryniski had a goal and a helper of her own. LeGar had six of ECU's 11 draw controls and Pallozzi picked up a team-high three ground balls. Ashley Vernon tied her career-high with nine saves in the cage.
Virginia Tech 20, Cincinnati 5
CINCINNATI - Cincinnati dropped a 20-5 decision to Virginia Tech in snowy and cold conditions on Wednesday at Gettler Stadium.
The Hokies (5-1) jumped out to a 14-2 halftime lead and held a 39-7 shot advantage over the Bearcats (0-4).
UC was within 2-1 with 22:19 left in the half after a goal by Kylie Nause, but Virginia Tech scored nine goals in-a-row to lead 11-1 with 9:07 remaining in the frame before the Bearcats added a brace from Borzillo with 6:45 left in the opening 20 minutes to make the score 11-2.
Borzillo added two more goals to seal the hat track, finding the back of the net 20 seconds into the second half and then on a free-position shot with 31 seconds to go. Nause added her second on an assist from Borzillo midway through the second half.
Page Petty (5), Kayla Frank (4) and Emma Crooks (4) led the scoring effort for the Hokies.