No. 5 James Madison and East Carolina remained unbeaten in American Athletic Conference play Saturday, while Cincinnati scored a key conference victory as well. No. 8 Florida, meanwhile, pulled away from No. 23 Penn in nonconference action.
NO. 5 JAMES MADISON 16, OLD DOMINION 2
HARRISONBURG, Va. – No. 5 James Madison lacrosse began its April slate with an American Athletic Conference victory, holding Old Dominion scoreless until the fourth quarter in a comfortable 16-2 win at Sentara Park on Saturday.
The Dukes improved to 11-1 (3-0) with the victory while the Monarchs dropped to 4-9 (0-3), losing their third straight.
Redshirt junior Isabella Peterson secured a hat trick with three goals and added two assists for a five-point afternoon. All told, 10 different Dukes found the back of the net on Saturday, with a different goal-scorer accounting for each succeeding tally.
The Dukes’ defense held Old Dominion scoreless for the first 50:00 of the game, its longest such scoreless stretch since holding Elon scoreless for a stretch of 55:04 on April 9, 2022. Nicholle Marshall led JMU with three ground balls while Mairead Durkin had two and added a caused turnover to her total. Maggie Clark also had a caused turnover and two ground balls to go with two goals from the midfield position.
For Old Dominion, Danielle Dundas and Payton Kisling both scored while Sabrina Leatherwo made three saves on a .375 percentage in relief.
With today's victory, JMU extended its lead against ODU to 12.5-2.5 in the inaugural TowneBank Royal Rivalry Challenge. The Dukes have earned a point in each of the past eight JMU-ODU meetings, dating back to mid-November's football triumph.
NO. 8 FLORIDA 17, PENN 13
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – In the sixth ranked matchup for the Gators this season, the No. 8 Florida lacrosse team used a late surge to defeat the 23rd-ranked Penn Quakers 17-13 on Saturday afternoon.
The Gators improve to 8-3 on the year, winning their last three-straight, while Penn falls to 5-4 in the 2023 campaign.
Florida’s offensive attack was led by Emma LoPinto, who posted four goals on the afternoon. Josie Hahn added a hat trick of her own with three, while Maggi Hall, Danielle Pavinelli, Paisley Eagan and Ava Tighe each registered two in the victory.
Madison Waters and Kaitlyn Davies each found the back of the cage once for Florida.
Ashley Gonzalez dished out seven assists in the win, setting a new program record for assists in a single game. Hall and Pavinelli each added two helpers, while LoPinto rounded out the crew with one assist.
The Gators won 22-of-34 draw controls in the game, with Liz Harrison tallying a team-high 16. That was not only a career-mark for the junior, but also tied the program record for draw controls in a game. Shelton Sawers (3) and Emily Heller (2) combined for five draw control victories in the game.
Florida’s defensive effort held the Quakers to 13-of-35 shooting (.371), while causing 10 turnovers. LoPinto posted a team-high three caused turnovers, followed by two from Becky Browndorf.
Emily Heller and Ashley Gonzalez paced the team with three groundballs a piece, while Sarah Reznick picked up two.
In the cage, Reznick registered 11 saves with a .458 save percentage on the afternoon.
CINCINNATI 12, TEMPLE 9
CINCINNATI -- The Cincinnati lacrosse team never trailed and fought its way to a 12-9 win over Temple on Saturday afternoon.
The Bearcats improved to 9-4 and 2-1 in the AAC, their second-most overall wins behind only the 2019 squad, which also defeated Temple twice for the only prior victories in the all-time series. The last three defeats had also come by a combined eight goals.
"These were two really, really solid and disciplined teams that came out and grinded today," head coach Gina Thomas said. "The fast start really put us in a confident position early. Ashley Lapp is a kid that does whatever she's told and embraces all the coaching from Haley Hardy. We love kids that want to grow and learn, and she's getting better and better from being here. I knew this would be a game for Kylie Gioia because she's from that area, so I told her to be Philly today, and she was."
Lapp registered 11 saves, one off a season-high set at Youngstown State on Feb. 22. Cincinnati has also outscored its opponents 48-18 over its three-game home win streak, improving to 6-1 in Nippert Stadium as well.
Ava Goeller's hat trick was her fifth, while Gioia earned her second to go with a career-high five points (three goals, two assists). The duo scored twice apiece, plus a Goeller assist on one of them, for the 4-0 lead over the game's first seven minutes.
Temple (5-6, 0-2 AAC) was not overly fazed by the early deficit, despite a timeout after trailing 3-0. The Owls fought back to tie it at 6-6 with 2:44 left in the half, but Gioia went to the left side and struck a goal across her body with five seconds left for the 7-6 lead. The Bearcats moved to 8-0 when leading at the break as well.
Lindsey Durkota's fourth goal of the season opened the second-half scoring, and she added another early in the fourth as well. Cincinnati turned that late first-half push into an eventual 10-6 lead for all the cushion it needed.
Freshman Camryn Callaghan, who entered the day third nationally in goals, added two more for her 46th of the season. She is now tied with Laura Simanski (2010) for fourth in single-season school history.
EAST CAROLINA 15, VANDERBILT 10
GREENVILLE, N.C. - The East Carolina lacrosse team took down the Vanderbilt Commodores, 15-10, on Saturday afternoon in Johnson Stadium, moving to 2-0 in American Conference competition. Camryn Pennypacker and Sophia LoCicero led the Pirates with four goals apiece while Brynn Knight had a solid day in goal with 11 saves while facing 21 shots on goal.
East Carolina (9-3, 2-0 AAC) matched the most wins in program history with the victory, using a 7-2 run in the third quarter to break open what had been a very close contest. The Pirates and the Commodores (3-8, 1-2 AAC) played to a 4-4 tie in the first 30 minutes of the contest both scoring two goals per quarter with ECU getting all four from different scorers.
In the third quarter, LoCicero and Frances Kimel both scored a pair of goals to compliment tallies by Pennypacker, Sophie Patton and Emily Stratton. The Pirates took the quarter by a 7-2 margin to break the game open for good.
In the final period, the Commodores scored first before Pennypacker scored a couple of goals sandwiched by Ellie Bromley - who had a fantastic day with four draw controls and two assists to go with her goal - and Maeci Moore goals. Josie Ward scored the final three goals of the game for Vanderbilt, but it was too little too late.
Usually not a strong point for the Pirates, ECU controlled the draw on Saturday with an 18-11 margin and despite being outshot found confident goalkeeping in the play of Knight to shut the door on the Commodores.