Four of the six American Athletic Conference teams came away with season-opening wins as East Carolina, Florida, Temple and Vanderbilt were impressive in their 2022 debuts.
Saturday, February 12
East Carolina 13, Radford 4
Richmond 18, Old Dominion 7
Temple 16, Army 5
Florida 22, Kennesaw State 7
Marquette 16, Cincinnati 13
Vanderbilt 18, Liberty 13
NO. 22 TEMPLE 16, ARMY 5
PHILADELPHIA - The Temple lacrosse team (1-0) defeated the Army Black Knights 16-5 Saturday afternoon to open its season with a bang. Seven Owls found the back of the net whilegraduate transfer Annie Carroll saved a 12 of 15 shots faced.
The Owls struck first, with two goals in the first quarter from Quinn Nicolai and Belle Mastropietro to end the first up 2-0.
In the second quarter, Temple caught fire. The Owls scored four straight to pile on a 6-0 lead with 3:31 remaining. Nicolai scored two more alongside the triumphant return of attacker Riley McGowan after she missed all of last season.
Army got on the board with a goal before the Cherry and White ripped off three more to take a 9-1 lead into halftime.
Mastropietro scored again to open the second half. Army found the back of the net again before Schickling became the sixth Owl to score followed by another goal from Mastropietro.
The Black Knights tallied their third of the game before Schickling struck back to give Temple a 13-3 lead moving into the final frame.
The Owls continued to pour it on in the 4th. Temple scored three straight, with goals coming from Abaigeal Ryan, Mastropietro, and Roth.
Mastropietro played a complete game, she led all scorers with four. The American Preseason Midfielder of the Year also dished out an assist, scooped one ground ball, and controlled four draws.
Roth helped lead the charge on offense. She scored two goals and passed for a game-high three assists.
Nicolai shined in her first Temple game with a hat-trick and an assist. Lauren Zinkl found the back of the net twice, Schickling and McGowan both scored twice from the attacking spot. Abaigeal Ryan also had one goal.
"This was a fantastic way for us to start our season," said Temple head coach Bonnie Rosen. "We've been so excited to play and just really thrilled with how we played as a team, great performances along the way. Just a great way to start the season."
EAST CAROLINA 13, RADFORD 4
RADFORD, Va. – A dominant first half allowed the East Carolina lacrosse team to cruise to a 13-4 win over Radford on Saturday afternoon.
ECU improves to 1-0 on the season while Radford drops to 0-1.
It did not take East Carolina long to get out of the gate. Just 1:15 into the game, Ellie Bromley opened the scoring off a pass from Camryn Pennypacker. 23 second later, Nicole LeGar added a second goal on an unassisted effort and then LeGar made it 3-0 in favor of ECU when she scored off a feed from Megan Tryniski with 12:17 still on the clock in the first quarter.
Radford briefly stopped the Pirate momentum, with Margaret Gleason scoring for the Highlanders with 9:40 left. But from there, the Pirates wrestled full control of the contest. ECU rattled off six straight goals to end the first quarter, including LeGar getting her third of the game while Frances Kimel had a goal and two assists in the span. LeGar's goal with three seconds in the first made it 9-1 in favor of ECU heading into the second frame.
While the Pirate offense slowed down a bit in the second quarter, scoring just two goals, the defense did not let up. Bromley joined LeGar in scoring a hat trick when she buried a free position shot. Radford got its second goal of the game, more than 15 minutes of game action after scoring its first, when Reaghan Kolb scored a man-down goal. Pennypacker answered with a goal for ECU, but that was the final tally of the first half as East Carolina took an 11-2 lead into halftime.
Defense continued to be the story for ECU in the third quarter. Brynn Knight, who was making her first career start in the goal and made a pair of saves in the first half, was relieved by Sophie Bandorick for the third quarter and Bandorick made three stops in the frame on the way to a shutout quarter. On the other end, Tryniski and Sophia LoCicero both scored on free-position attempts, with LoCicero completing her first career hat trick.
Radford was the only team to score in the fourth quarter, as the Highlanders got a pair of goals. But East Carolina made sure the result was never in doubt, closing out the first victory of the season.
ECU finished with a 32-17 edge in shots, a 27-24 lead in ground balls and led Radford in draw controls 11-9. The Pirates forced 22 turnovers and turned it over 17 times themselves and were 23-of-25 on clears compared to 19-of-21 for Radford.
LoCicero (three goals, one assist) and Tryniski (two goals and two assists) led the team with four points while LeGar (three goals), Bromley (three goals) and Kimel (one goal, two assists) each had three points. Flynn Reed led the Pirates with five draw controls while Kimel scooped up four ground balls. In the goal, Knight played the first 30:46 and finished with two saves while Bandorick played the final 29:14, allowing two goals and making seven saves.
NO. 7 FLORIDA 22, KENNESAW STATE 7
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The seventh-ranked Florida lacrosse team kicked off the 2022 season on a high note on Saturday, defeating the Kennesaw State Owls 22-7 at Donald R. Dizney Stadium.
This is the fifth-straight season opening win for Florida and they move to 9-4 overall in season openers.
Florida was led offensively by freshman Emma LoPinto, who notched eight points on six goals and two assists in her collegiate debut. That marks the most goals scored by a Florida player in a season opener in program history and ties the program record for most goals scored by a freshman.
Danielle Pavinelli added four goals of her own in the victory – tying her career-high – followed by two apiece from Maggi Hall and Emily Heller. Eight Gators each registered one goal on the afternoon: Paisley Eagan, Brie Catts, Kaala Puglisi, Celeste Forte, Ashley Gonzalez, Charlotte Harmon, Kylee Hubiak and Bella Palagonia.
Gonzalez registered a career-high four assists on the afternoon, while LoPinto and Pavinelli each dished out two assists in the victory. Six players tallied a single assist as well: Heller, Shelton Sawers, Madison Rielly, Whitney Albert, Forte and Kelly Schluederberg.
Florida won the battle in the draw circle, coming up with 18-of-32 draws – led by four apiece from Heller and Sawers.
The Gators' defense held the Owls to just 7-of-18 shooting in the game and registered 10 caused turnovers. Forte led the way with two, while Leigh Lingo, Catherine Flaherty, Becky Browndorf, Maeson Tydings, Sarah Mackey, Eagan, Hall and Gonzalez each recorded one.
Emma Wightman and Mackey each notched a team-high two groundballs, while 10 other Gators each recorded one groundball in the win.
In the cage, Reznick tallied three saves in her 45:00 between the pipes, while Julia Hammerschlag notched one save in her 15 minutes of action.
VANDERBILT 18, LIBERTY 13
NASHVILLE - Gabby Fornia scored two goals and had six assists, while goalie Paige Gunning had 13 saves to lead Vanderbilt past Liberty 18-13 in the season-opener for both teams Saturday afternoon.
Fornia, The American's Preseason Attack Player of the Year, quarterbacked a Commodore offense that had nine different goal-scorers as Vanderbilt never trailed in the game and uplled away by holding the Flames to only one fourth-quarter goal.
Lila Huddles scored a team-high four goals and added an assist, while Bri Gross had three goals for the Commodores.
Gunning proved to be the difference in a game that saw each team fire 26 shots on goal. Gunning made six of her 13 stops in the fourth quarter, allowing the Commodores to pull away.
MARQUETTE 16, CINCINNATI 13
MILWAUKEE -- Ava Goeller scored a 44-second hat trick in the final three minutes to pull Cincinnati within three, but Marquette's all-day attack was too much for the Bearcats in a 16-13 defeat Saturday afternoon, each team's season-opener.
Goeller, the reigning Big South Freshman of the Year at Radford, scored 40 goals last season with nine hat tricks. Her five for the game was one off a career-high.
Senior Kylie Nause's first-quarter hat trick began with a rebound off her own free-position attempt at 11:42. Goeller scored her first UC goal early in the second quarter to get within 5-4.
The Golden Eagles scored the first three goals of the third quarter to lead 12-6, their largest of the day. Alyssa Adams, an All-Conference honoree who returned for her fifth season, then got into the scoring column to give UC some relief.
The Bearcats won the turnover (18-14) ground ball (19-15) battle while also out-shooting the hosts 39-35. Marquette had three hat tricks on the day. Freshman Sophie O'Brien also netted five saves in the first half alone, finishing with six.
"It was a tough outcome, but not a bad start," said Cincinnati head coach Gina Thomas. "We hit some injuries that slowed us down, but I thought we came out strong and finished strong. We lost ourselves in the second and third quarter. This team is young and experience is only going to help them gain confidence and see success. They're setting their standard, and we're looking good from the start."
RICHMOND 18, OLD DOMINION 7
RICHMOND, Va. – Old Dominion University lacrosse fell in the 2022 season opener at Richmond 18-7 on Saturday afternoon.
Lilly Siskind tied her career-high with five goals, but it wasn't enough as the Spiders raced out to a 9-2 first quarter lead and led 15-4 at halftime.
"We knew this would be a tough game, and Richmond is a very talented team," ODU head coach Heather Holt said. "We continued to improve throughout the game and learned a lot about many of our young players. I am optimistic about the future of our program."
Richmond scored first on a goal from Lindsey Frank 49 seconds in, but Molly May tied the score with her first goal as a Monarch a minute later.
The Spiders scored four-straight for a 5-1 lead before Siskind made the score 5-2 with her first of the game. UR scored the final four goals of the period and pushed the lead to 12-2 before a Siskind goal stopped the run.
Corrinne Stratton added a goal for the Monarchs, but UR scored two more for the 15-4 halftime score.
Siskind delivered a second half hat trick, scoring a goal in the third quarter and two in the fourth.
Frank led the way for Richmond with three goals and three assists.
Jenna Peccia went the entire way in goal for the Monarchs, making six saves.