Four American Athletic Conference teams were in action Wednesday and two of them - East Carolina and Vanderbilt - rode strong second-half performances to comfortable wins.
EAST CAROLINA 20, CAMPBELL 8
GREENVILLE, N.C. – A dominant second-half performance helped the ECU lacrosse team run away with a 20-8 win over Campbell on Wednesday afternoon in Johnson Stadium.
The Pirates improve to 2-2 on the season while Campbell drops to 1-2.
After scoring just 12 combined goals in the previous two games, the ECU offense got off to another slow start on Wednesday. After France Kimel scored the game's opening goal, the Pirates did not score again for nearly 18 minutes. In that span, Julianna Sanchez rattled off three goals for Campbell while Sam Bischoff added another for a 4-1 lead.
However, when the Pirates offense finally started clicking, the floodgates opened up. ECU went on a 6-0 run behind two goals each from Ally Stanton and Megan Pallozzi, one from Elizabeth Wilson and a second of the game from Kimel. Campbell briefly stalled the run with a goal, but Sophia LoCicero punctuated the half in style by scoring a bullet from a free-position shot. That made it 8-5 at the break.
Coming back for the second half, the Pirates continued to attack on offense. Pallozzi opened the scoring by completing her hat trick before Camryn Pennypacker scored her first goal of the day. After a Camel goal, Stanton joined Pallozzi in the hat trick club by scoring her third tally of the game. Pallozzi got her fourth goal and Ellie Bromley scored just 13 seconds later to make it 13-6.
With that comfortable of a lead, ECU could have easily relaxed and allowed Campbell back in the game. The Camels briefly got some momentum when Ally Heath scored, but the Pirates never allowed Campbell any closer. Pallozzi got her fifth goal on a man-up situation, the second time this season the senior has scored five goals. Pallozzi added an assist for her sixth point of the day when she set up Pennypacker.
ECU continued to score even when the game was out of reach. The Pirates closed the game on a 5-1 run, highlighted by Wilson scoring between her legs off a feed from Ellie Bromley.
The Pirates' 20 goals are the most since beating Wofford 20-5 in the 2020 home opener. It is the second time in program history that ECU has scored at least 20 goals.
ECU finished with a 34-28 edge in shots, a 16-12 advantage in draw controls and turned it over 13 times to 14 miscues for Campbell. The Camels took the lead in ground balls 17-16.
Pallozzi finished with six points while Stanton had five on three goals and two assists. Wilson, Kimel, Pennypacker and Bromley all tallied three points.
Defensively, Ashley Vernon finished with 10 saves in the cage for ECU. Nicole LeGar had a team-high four draw controls with Barr and Brittney Borchers each getting three. Courtney Frank forced a pair of turnovers while Pallozzi and Liz Blumthal each collected two ground balls.
ECU will be back home on Sunday afternoon to host No. 8 Duke. That game will start at 1 p.m., and will be broadcast on ESPN+.
NO. 25 VANDERBILT 16, CENTRAL MICHIGAN 10
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Senior Elizabeth Scarrone scored five times as the No. 25 Vanderbilt lacrosse team pulled away late in the second half for a 16-10 win over Central Michigan on Wednesday afternoon at the Vanderbilt Lacrosse Complex.
Vanderbilt improved to 2-1 on the season with its second straight win. The Commodores knocked off No. 24 Colorado in overtime Sunday.
“I think it was a good team win,” Vanderbilt head coach Beth Hewitt said. “We got off to a nice, fast start. I think Central Michigan is super athletic and fast and really competitive. We knew they were going to come back and make a little bit of a run. I thought the girls did a really nice job of staying composed and coming together at some of the timeouts.”
Vanderbilt scored the first five goals and led 6-1 in the first 13 minutes. Gabby Fornia started the day with a goal in the opening three minutes before Scarrone found the back of the net for her first.
Mikela McCauley scored twice in less than a minute to stretch the advantage up to 4-0 followed by another Scarrone goal to make it 5-0.
Central Michigan (1-1) answered with the final four goals of the first half to close within 6-5 at the break, and then scored the first goal of the second half to tie the game at 6-6.
Scarrone scored her third goal of the game to put the Commodores on top, 7-6, with 25:16 to go.
The teams traded goals to a 9-9 standstill with 19:47 to play. Down the stretch, it was all Commodores as the home side scored seven of the game’s final eight goals to pull away. Maddie Souza, Scarrone and Fornia scored three-straight goals for a 12-9 lead.
After a Central Michigan goal, Scarrone, Griffin Gearhardt, Souza and Cassidy Orban finished off the Chippewas with goals in the last five minutes.
Souza and McCauley both finished with a hat trick while Fornia and Gross each had two assists.
American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week Paige Gunning made eight saves on the day.
The Commodores led 32-26 in shots and held a 22-17 advantage in ground balls. Central Michigan held a slight 15-13 edge in draw controls.
Next up for the Commodores is the top team in the nation. Vanderbilt has a road tilt with No. 1 North Carolina at 10 a.m. Sunday.
LIBERTY 14, CINCINNATI 10
LYNCHBURG, Virginia – The University of Cincinnati lacrosse team dropped a 14-10 road matchup at Liberty Wednesday in nonconference action at the Liberty Lacrosse Field.
Cincinnati (1-1) and Liberty (1-1) were knotted at four at halftime, but the Flames scored nine-straight goals during a 20-minute span of the second half which proved to be the difference. UC once against mounted a late comeback, scoring four in the final minutes of the game, but struggled to overcome 28 turnovers.
Monica Borzillo scored four goals and had an assist while Kylie Nause and Alyssa Adams had two goals apiece. Julie Rose added her first collegiate goal while Peyton Mottice added a score as well.
WILLIAM & MARY 19, OLD DOMINION 10
NORFOLK, Va. – Eight goals from Belle Martire carried visiting William & Mary (1-1) past Old Dominion (0-2), 19-11 at the L.R. Hill Sports Complex on Wednesday afternoon.
"William & Mary played a great game today, and our team needs to take care of the ball better and finish our plays," head coach Heather Holt said. "We played a lot of defense today and that showed. We hustled really well today, and there was a lot of effort all over the field."
A high-octane first half saw a combined 17 goals, four ties and three lead changes. Martire started the scoring with an unassisted marker at the 28:57 mark, but two unanswered from Claire Porter and Lilly Siskind put the Monarchs on top, 2-1, after six minutes of action.
Siskind, Porter and Maddie Mullenbach provided the lion's share of the goals for ODU on Wednesday. A Preseason All-American Athletic Conference honoree, Siskind put home four goals to set a new personal best and chipped in an assist for a team-high five points. Porter scored twice and added an assist. Mullenbach had her finest game as a Monarch with two goals – her first collegiate markers – and a career-high two assists.
Martire quickly tied the score before Sabrina Schrader gave W&M the lead once more at 3-2 with 20:48 left in the half. Those two scores were part of a 4-0 run which gave the Tribe a 5-2 edge near the midway point of the half, but ODU responded in kind with three-straight goals to knot the score again.
Corrinne Stratton notched her third goal of the season at the 11:35 mark to start the Monarchs' run. Katie McGrain followed suit just over two minutes later with her first goal of the campaign, assisted by Siskind, to cut the deficit to one.
With 7:50 to go in the half, Lindsay Baer set up Mullenbach to make the score 5-5.
Mullenbach scored a woman-up goal at the 4:40 mark, and Baer scored on an assist from Porter less than a minute later to make the score 7-7. However, three-straight goals from Martire gave W&M a 10-7 lead at the break.
The Tribe opened the second half with a goal to push their lead to 11-7, and the two sides traded the next four goals. Siskind scored at the 27:10 mark of the second before finishing off a pass from Moira Olexa six minutes later to complete her hattrick and make the score 12-9.
Siskind struck again with 15:33 on the clock to pull ODU to within four at 14-10, but William & Mary scored five unanswered to ice away the game. Porter scored on an assist from Haley O'Connor inside the final 30 seconds of the game to produce the final tally.
Maria Rekus shared the game high and set a personal best with four grounds balls on the day. The freshman from Eldersburg, Md. also caused a pair of turnovers. Paige Angelus caused a career-high three turnovers to lead all players. Lauren Carey created a pair of turnovers as well and added three draw controls.
Caroline Shaefer paced the Monarchs with five draw controls. For the game, W&M had an edge in draw controls, 19-13.
Elsa Rall made 13 saves in a winning effort for the Tribe. Sabrina Leatherwooddrew the starting assignment in goal for ODU and made eight saves in 49:15 of action.
The Monarchs return to the L.R. Hill Sports Complex on Saturday for a noon tilt with Longwood