Temple registered an historic win against No. 11/12 Towson to cap a 3-1 showing for American Athletic Conference teams Wednesday. Meanwhile, Vanderbilt won its third straight game, while Cincinnati scored its second consecutive victory.
TEMPLE 12, NO. 11/12 TOWSON 8
PHILADELPHIA - The Temple lacrosse team captured a key victory over No. 11/12 Towson 12-8 Wednesday afternoon, registering the first win against a ranked opponent since March 18, 2018, when they defeated No. 22 Denver. It is also the highest-ranked win in Temple lacrosse history.
"These kinds of wins are really wonderful and they make our program and university look great," said head coach Bonnie Rosen. "I have no doubt having parents in the stands gave the girls energy, and they used it all the right ways."
After Towson opened the game with a goal, the Owls proceeded to score the next five goals unanswered. Belle Mastropietro, Meghan Hoffman (2), Jen Rodzewich, and Bridget Whitaker all scored.
Towson would again score first in the second half off a goal from Blair Pearre, but would not score again for over 20 minutes.
The Owls caught fire, scoring the next five goals in under 10 minutes. Hoffman scored two and assisted on two others during this run to secure a 12-4 lead
Hoffman had one of the best performances of any Owl this season. She set a career-high with five goals to go with three assists. Her eight points are the most from any Temple player this season.
The 12 goals the Owls scored are the most any team has put up on the Tigers, who had allowed just 6.6 goals per game.
Shana Hecht was fantastic in goal. The Sacred Heart transfer set a new career-best with 10 saves.
VANDERBILT 20, KENNESAW STATE 13
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Senior Gabby Fornia set the program career assists record as the Vanderbilt lacrosse team closed the nonconference schedule with a 20-13 win over Kennesaw State on Wednesday at Vanderbilt Stadium.
Vanderbilt (5-2) is a perfect 5-0 at home this season and has now won three a row with American Athletic Conference play on the horizon.
Fornia entered the day tied with Sarah Downing for first in program history with 88 career assists. She broke the record with a feed to Paige Finneran with 5:41 left in the first half and finished with three assists on the day.
“Watching Gabby (Fornia) break the record today in the football stadium was pretty special,” Vanderbilt head coach Beth Hewitt said. “We’ve been kind of watching that for a couple games now thinking she’s going to get it done… I think the one that finally got the job done was pretty awesome. Her vision is just so incredible, and to see someone of her caliber be able to break it in such a hard year I think the whole squad was just really excited for her.”
A total of 12 Commodores scored goals Wednesday led by four from Callie Sundin, three from Cassidy Orban and two apiece from Maddie Souza, Bri Gross and Kayla Rieu.
Vanderbilt scored the first four goals to take the momentum in the early going. After a Kennesaw State goal, the Commodores answered with the next three for a 7-1 edge.
Back-and-forth play put the score at 9-4 in favor of the Dores until the home side put away the final two goals of the half to take an 11-4 lead into the intermission.
In the second half, Kennesaw State hung around and used a 5-1 run to trim the Vanderbilt lead down to 18-13 with five minutes to play. Rieu posted both of her goals in the final two minutes to ice the game.
Kennesaw State had 23 turnovers on the day, 18 of which were caused. AAC Defensive Player of the Week Melissa Hawkins anchored the defense with five caused turnovers. Vanderbilt held a 19-16 edge on draw controls thanks to seven from Gross.
In goal, Paige Gunning played the first 36:35, making five saves to pick up the win. Freshman Lexie de Roziere was strong in relief, making seven saves in the first home action of her collegiate career.
Vanderbilt is now 9-0 in the all-time series versus Kennesaw State.
CINCINNATI 16, ROBERT MORRIS 7
CINCINNATI – The University of Cincinnati lacrosse team opened up a 6-0 lead and never looked back, beating Robert Morris, 16-7, Wednesday in nonconference action at Nippert Stadium.
UC (3-2) led 13-3 at the half and held at least a 10-goal edge until 2:28 remained in the game and RMU (5-2) pulled things down to single digits.
Kylie Nause scored two of her four goals in the opening three minutes and had scored four with 13:43 left in the first half.
Monica Borzillo assisted on five of the 16 goals and scored one herself.
Morgan Dukes returned to the lineup and was a noticeable presence on the back line, scooping three ground balls and causing two turnovers.
Lindsay Durkota had an early candidate for goal of the year with 6:38 left in the first half.
Alyssa Adams and Kylie Nause each scored four goals on the day. Taylor Gysin finished with three scores and Kate Carney had a pair.
Sam Mlkvy had six draw controls while Adams, Morgan Bates and Anna Platou each had two. Adrianna Fess caused five turnovers and picked up three ground balls. Alexandra Fess had three ground balls and a caused turnover.
Goalie Kate Brocato made six saves and got the win.
LIBERTY 14, OLD DOMINION 8
NORFOLK, Va. – Facing a seven-goal deficit early in the second half, the Old Dominion women's lacrosse team (2-4) drew to within three goals midway through the half before eventually falling to Liberty (3-3) 14-8 at the L.R. Hill Sports Complex on Wednesday afternoon.
"Liberty is always a very physical and tough team," head coach Heather Holt said. "We had a rough start in the first half. Our team fought through the whole game today but had created too big of a hole to start. We need to clean up the little things and play for 60 minutes."
Trailing 8-1 with 25 minutes remaining in the game, the Monarchs came to life with an extended 7-3 run spanning nearly 20 minutes. A pair of woman-up goals coming less than 45 seconds apart galvanized ODU. Lindsay Baer set up Claire Porter at the 25:46 mark to make the score 8-2. Thirty-eight seconds later, Danielle Dundas netted her fifth goal of the season.
Porter had one of her most-productive games in a Monarchs uniform. The junior from Berlin, Maryland notched her second-career hat trick and added a pair of assists for a personal-best five points.
The Flames appeared to regain control of the game with two-unanswered goals, but Lilly Siskind found Baer at the 19:52 mark to make the score 10-4. Following another Liberty goal with 17:21 on the clock, ODU rattled off four unanswered goals to pull to within three.
Porter scored back-to-back goals two minutes apart then dished out assists on a woman-up goal by Haley O'Connor and on Baer's second marker of the game to make the score 11-8.
A junior from Abington, Pennsylvania, Baer notched two goals and two assists for her fourth-straight game with three or more points. On the season, Baer already has eight goals to match her single-season high and has set new single-season bests with seven assists and 15 points.
Leah Ruby scored a woman-down goal with 7:31 left in the game to blunt ODU's momentum. From there, the Flames added two more scores inside the final 3:05 to produce the final margin.
"I am proud of how our team went into halftime and made the changes," Holt said. "There was a nice surge in the second half, but we still needed to minimize a lot of mental errors. This is a young team, and they are working hard to get better every day."
Liberty seized control of the day early with six unanswered to start the game and led 7-1 at the intermission. Maddie Mullenbach got the Monarchs on the board with her third goal of the year at the 7:36 mark.
Isabelle O'Connell shared the game high with four ground balls and caused a pair of turnovers to share the team high with Lauren Carey. Carey added a pair of ground balls as well.
Jordan Sheive and Ruby both notched hat tricks for LU. Leah added an assist for a four-point outing. Jennifer Soriero made six saves in a winning effort.
Jenna Peccia started in goal and made three saves for ODU. Brianna Blatter played the final 41:36 between the pipes and stopped 11 shots.