Three of the five American Athletic Conference teams in action Saturday came away with Opening Day wins, highlighted by No. 6 James Madison's thrilling overtime win against No. 3 North Carolina in Harrisonburg, Va.
Temple began its season with a win against Colgate in Philadelphia, while East Carolina made a winner of first-year head coach Brittany Dipper in a come-from-behind victory against Queens.
No. 10 Florida fell in a top-10 battle at No. 8 Loyola, while Old Dominion dropped its opener against Elon.
JAMES MADISON 19, NORTH CAROLINA 18
HARRISONBURG, Va. – Katelyn Morgan scored the game-winning goal in overtime to lift No. 6 James Madison lacrosse over No. 3 North Carolina, 19-18, on Saturday afternoon at Sentara Park.
JMU (1-0) saw three players register hat tricks, while the team went 4-of-5 (.800) in free position shots to top the Tar Heels (0-1).
Sophomore Maddie Epke recorded her first career hat trick with a career-high seven goals and one assist for the Dukes along with a team-best 10 draw controls. Seniors Isabella Peterson and Taylor Marchetti also recorded hat tricks with five and three goals, respectively. In addition to her game winner, Morgan tallied two assists, while graduate student Kacey Knobloch finished with two goals and two assists.
Sophomore Courtney Quirk paced the Dukes' defense with two ground balls and two caused turnovers. Freshman Ava Bleckley secured two ground balls and had a caused turnover in her collegiate debut. Eleven players registered caused turnovers for JMU as well as six with caused turnovers.
Graduate student Ashley Humphrey led the charge for the Tar Heels attack with three goals and four assists. Freshman Eva Ingrilli and seniors Alyssa Long and Caitlyn Wurzburger each recorded hat tricks. Sophomore Caroline Godine added two goals and three assists, while sophomore Kiley Mottice recorded two goals and one assist. Graduate student Emily Nalls secured eight of the Tar Heels' 22 draw controls.
TEMPLE 11, COLGATE 5
PHILADELPHIA - The Temple women's lacrosse team opened their 2024 campaign with an 11-5 win over Colgate on Saturday. Seven different Owls scored, with four netting two goals apiece.
Belle Mastropietro scored twice, dished an assist, and added two ground balls and two caused turnovers. Taylor Grollmans aved six of 11 shots she face in goal.
Mastropietro has now scored two or more goals in eight straight games going back to last season. She also had a match high seven shot attempts.
Mackenzie Roth dished a pair of assists to give her 78 in her career. She's now tied for fifth in program history.
Maddie Barber led all players with four draw controls.
Temple outshot Colgate 38-11, with 28 of those shots coming on goal.
EAST CAROLINA 15, QUEENS 12
GREENVILLE, N.C. - The East Carolina lacrosse team soared past the Queens Royals, 15-12, on Saturday at Johnson Stadium with a come from behind victory. Erin Gulden and Frances Kimel led the way with four goals and an assist each.
Queens (0-1) jumped ahead early, scoring five goals in the first quarter. After ECU (1-0) scored the first goal, the Royals went on a 5-0 run and held the Pirates to only two goals. Queens extended the lead further in the second quarter, scoring two additional goals to go up 7-3.
Things took a turn for East Carolina in the second, with the offense really beginning to heat up. A goal by Kimel to kick off the quarter was the beginning of the comeback, and things were only up from there. Jaime Behar entered the game late in the second quarter, turning things around from a defensive standpoint. Behar would go on to make 11 saves in the game, allowing just four goals and helping the Pirates to just a one-goal deficit at the half.
The Pirates owned the third, going on a 5-0 run taking the lead, and quickly, from the Royals with goals from Emily Stratton (2), Kayla Wilkes, Ellie Bromley and Leah Bestany. Behar shut the Royals down, allowing the Pirates to push the lead out with only one goal to the visiting team in the third. East Carolina finished out the quarter with a 12-9 lead.
The Pirates closed things out in the fourth, adding on three more goals. Defense took the lead with Behar standing tall between the pipes to keep the Royals from scoring and closing out the game en route to the first win of the Brittany Dipper era in Greenville.
LOYOLA 18, FLORIDA 10
BALTIMORE – The 10th ranked Florida lacrosse team fell to No. 8 Loyola by a score of 18-10 on Saturday afternoon at Ridley Athletic Complex. The
Gators fall in their season opener for the first time since 2017.
Florida was led by senior Maggi Hall, who had five goals which ties for the second most in a season opener in school history. Emily Heller put in two goals, along with Sarah Falk, Ava Tighe and Gianna Monaco recording one a piece. Loyola's Georgia Latch totaled nine points on the afternoon including six goals and three assists.
The Gators held a lead for just over 20 minutes of the first half, controlling leads of 2-0, 4-2, 5-3, and 8-7 throughout the half. With the score being tied 8-8 at half, the main difference of the game was in the third quarter where Florida was out-shot 10-3 and outscored 8-2 in the frame.
UF had just two assists, compared to Loyola's eight. There was a total of 19 penalties in this top-10 match, with 12 of them being committed by the Gators.
ELON 16, OLD DOMINION 6
NORFOLK, Va. – The Old Dominion Lacrosse team fell to Elon on Saturday 16-6 at the L.R. Hill Sports Complex in the team’s season opener. Emma Rowland scored three goals for the Monarchs.
Elon opened the scoring in the first quarter with 12 minutes remaining. Two minutes later Rowland took a ball coast to coast and tied the game. The Phoenix went on to score three more goals in the first quarter and took a 4-1 lead into the second quarter.
Elon extended its lead in the second quarter with two more goals before Lilly Siskind would score and Corrinne Stratton followed Siskind’s goal to cut into the Elon. Rowland would make the score 6-4 after she scored her second goal of the day. The Phoenix scored two more goals to end the half and take an 8-4 lead into the break.
Elon would start the third quarter with a goal making it 9-4. Rowland would score her hat trick five minutes into the third quarter and Siskind would follow that goal with her second of the day to make it 9-6. Elon would extend its lead to 12-6 to end the third quarter and then hold the Monarchs (0-1) scoreless in the fourth quarter while adding four goals of their own to take the win 16-6.