The two American Athletic Conference women's lacrosse games were decided by a combined three goals Saturday as East Carolina edged Old Dominion for a road win, while Vanderbilt held off Tempple in Nashville.
EAST CAROLINA 12, OLD DOMINION 10
NORFOLK, Va. – The East Carolina lacrosse team defeated Old Dominion, 12-10, on Saturday afternoon in an American Athletic Conference contest. Riley Matthiesen and Kayla Wilkes recorded hat tricks in the victory.
The Pirates (4-7, 2-1 American) weathered an early three-goal run by Old Dominion (8-6, 1-2 American) before using a 6-3 second quarter to take the lead and never look back. The six-goal outburst in the period marked the high-water mark of the game with just eight goals combined between the teams in the second half.
ECU held the Monarchs to three goals in the third quarter before just a single score in the fourth. Conversely, the visitors managed a pair in each period in the second half.
Jaime Behar played the full 60 minutes in goal for the Pirates with six saves while ECU gave Old Dominion goalkeeper Brynn Bowen too much to handle with just two saves to her 12 goals allowed.
Offensively, Matthiesen and Wilkes led the way with three goals apiece, each with a single assist as well. Rachel Chessock joined the pair with four points of her own.
VANDERBILT 12, TEMPLE 11
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Nancy Halleron led all scorers with five points as Vanderbilt survived a late Temple push to come out with a 12-11 victory at the David Williams II Recreation & Wellness Center on Saturday morning.
Temple struck first in the opening seconds of the game but the Commodores scored four unanswered to jump out to an early 4-1 lead. The Owls went on to score three more times in the opening frame but Vandy held steady taking a 6-4 advantage into the second quarter. Temple outscored the Dores 4-1 in the second leading 8-7 at the break. The Commodores opened the second half firing with three straight goals, only allowing Temple to find the back of the cage once in the third period. Temple kept the momentum with a game-tying goal with 12:24 remaining but Kemper Robinson lifted Vandy to take back the lead, 11-10. The Owls would go on to tie it once more but Robinson came up clutch with three minutes left to give Vanderbilt its’ final edge.
Vanderbilt (6-7, 2-2 American) had six scores, with Baker and Halleron posting hat tricks. Jaime Biskup tallied her sixth multi-goal performance in seven games.
Robinson paced Vandy with five ground balls, the most by an individual in a game this season, four caused turnovers and three draw controls. Halleron added two assists in her performance while Cate Bradley, Sammy Nuchow and Molly Finlay also dished assists. In cage, Molly Joyce made five stops.
Temple (2-10, 0-3 American) was led by Sarah Gowman’s hat trick while Amelia Wright posted four points off two goals and two assists. Sabrina Martin registered a goal, an assist and five draw controls for the Owls. In cage, Colleen Berardino made 11 saves to help anchor the Owls’ defense in 46 minutes of action.