South Florida and James Madison remained atop the American Athletic Conference standings at 3-0 in conference play, while East Carolina scored a thrilling come-from-behind win in overtime to cap the third week of league play.
SOUTH FLORIDA 17, VANDERBILT 7
The University of South Florida women's lacrosse team earned their third conference win and ninth overall win this year, defeating Vanderbilt 17-7.
The Bulls' win marks their sixth in a row, with a combined margin of victory totaling 110-42 over those six wins. They have scored 11 or more goals in each game this season.
Vanderbilt came in at 55 in the NCAA RPI rankings ahead of this game, with the Bulls at 45.
Sofia Chepenik sang the national anthem prior to the game and then scored a hat trick.
Goalie Paige Pagano earned her ninth victory of the season, totaling nine saves and only allowing seven goals, continuing her six-game streak of holding opponents to under 10 goals each game.
JAMES MADISON 17, CHARLOTTE 10
Maddie Epke scored a game-high five goals and set an American Athletic Conference record with 23 draw controls to lead No. 14 James Madison to a 17-10 win against Charlotte at Sentara Park.
Epke's performance helped JMU erase a 7-5 halftime deficit as the Dukes outscored the 49ers 12-3 in the final 30 minutes. The Dukes finished with a 26-4 advantage in draw controls and a 42-20 edge in shots.
Charlotte had raced to an 8-5 lead early in the third quarter behind a hat trick from Isa Torres. But Epke scored four of her five goals after halftime and helped the Dukes win every draw in the third and fourth quarters.
Brianna Mennella and Payton Root added hat tricks for JMU, which improved to 7-4 overall and 3-0 in The American.
EAST CAROLINA 11, TEMPLE 10 (OT)
Riley Matthiesen scored the gamewinner in overtime and came up with the pivotal defensive play at the end of regulation to lead East Carolina to an 11-10 win against Temple Saturday in Philadelphia.
Matthiesen's goal came with 46 seconds left in the first overtime period as she finished a feed from Katelyn Sclafani on the Pirates' first possession of the extra period.
But it was Matthiesen's play in the closing seconds of regulation that extended the game to begin with. After Temple goalie Colleen Berardino denied the Pirates with 20 seconds left in the fourth quarter and with Temple holding a 10-9 lead, the Owls merely needed to maintain possession to pick up their first conference win of the year.
Matthiesen came up with a critical stick check on the ride, picked up the ensuing ground ball with 11 seconds left and fed the ball to Leah Bestany, who drew a hard foul inside the eight-meter arc and converted the free position opportunity with four seconds left, sending the game to overtime.
East Carolina, which trailed 10-6 after three quarters, saw goalie Jamie Behar make three saves in the fourth period before she turned in her biggest stop in overtime, going low to deny Sarah Gowman after the Owls had won the draw to start the extra period.
Matthiesen finished with three goals and an assist to lead East Carolina, which defeated Temple for the first time in eight games against the Owls. East Carolina improved to 3-6 overall and 1-1 in conference play with the win.
Gowman finished with three goals for Temple, which fell to 2-9 overall and 0-2 in The American.