James Madison and Temple improved to 2-0 in American Athletic Conference play as those teams joined Florida as Saturday winners.
The Dukes pulled away from Cincinnati to break open what had been a one-goal lead at halftime, Temple outlasted East Carolina, and Florida raced to a big early lead against Old Dominion.
TEMPLE 13, EAST CAROLINA 8
GREENVILLE, N.C. - Belle Mastropietro and Julie Schickling each netted hat tricks and Mackenzie Roth tied Temple's career assist record as the Owls defeated East Carolina 13-8 on Saturday. They are now 2-0 in the American and have won three of their last four.
Mastropietro set a season high with ten draw controls in addition to her three goals, and Roth led the Owls with four total points. Taylor Grollman made nine saves in net to anchor the defense.
Roth's three assists give her 89 for her career, tying the program record. She has seven in her last two games.
Mastropietro's hat trick was her fourth in a row and sixth overall this season. She's totaled 14 goals and 27 draw controls in the last four games.
Schickling now has hat tricks in back-to-back games and three overall this season.
Mastropietro, Shallow, and Maddie Barber combined for eight of Temple's ten caused turnovers.
Taylor Grollman notched her eighth game this season with more saves than goals allowed.
JAMES MADISON 19, CINCINNATI 8
CINCINNATI, Ohio – No. 6 James Madison cruised past Cincinnati in a 19-8 victory to earn its second American Athletic Conference win of the season on Saturday.
The Dukes dominated the draw circle by a 21-9 margin and capitalized on 7-of-8 free position opportunities to improve to 8-2 (2-0) on the season while the Bearcats dropped to 8-4 (1-1).
JMU's scoring efforts were led by senior attacker Isabella Peterson and sophomore attacker Maddie Epke. Peterson found the back of the net five times while Epke notched four goals and one assist in the outing. Redshirt junior Olivia Mattis scored twice and added an assist and graduate student attacker Kacey Knobloch notched one goal and two assists.
The Dukes' defense was spearheaded by freshman defender Ava Bleckley who secured three ground balls and caused four turnovers on Saturday. Epke scooped up four ground balls and tallied two caused turnovers while senior defender Nicholle Marshall recorded two ground balls and two caused turnovers.
Epke rounded out her strong performance with a career-high 14 draw controls while Peterson tallied four, Bleckley collected two and Knobloch added one.
Goalkeeper Caitlin Boden scooped up two ground balls for the Dukes and made seven saves on 25 shots faced, posting a .467 save percentage.
Midfielder Lauren Ottensmeyer scored a team-high four goals for Cincinnati and the Dukes' defense held the nation's second highest goal-scorer, Camryn Callaghan, to just one goal. Goalkeeper Hailey Darko made seven saves on 35 shots faced, posting a .269 save percentage.
The Dukes outshot the Bearcats by a 35-25 margin and scooped up 19 ground balls over Cincinnati's nine.
FLORIDA 19, OLD DOMINION 4
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The 11th ranked Florida lacrosse team took care of business on Saturday afternoon, defeating Old Dominion by a score of 19-4. The Gators move to 9-2 overall and 1-0 in AAC play, while the Monarchs drop to 3-8 overall and 0-2 in AAC play.
Florida had a season best .731 shot percentage, on 19 of 26 shooting, putting 25 of those shots on frame. Maggi Hall and Danielle Pavinelli combined for nine of the teams 19 goals, on nine of 11 shooting (.818 shot percentage). Eight more Gators found the back of the cage, including multi goal games from Emily Heller and Sarah Falk with two goals each. Ashley Gonzalez, Cate Isaacson, Josie Hahn, Ava Tighe, Lea Flobeck and Paisley Eagan all scored one.
UF totaled double-digit assists for the sixth-consecutive game, finishing with 11 on the day. Hall, Pavinelli, Gonzalez and Tighe all passed out two assists, along with Heller, Gabbi Koury and Madison Waters having one apiece.
Liz Harrison led the way at the center circle for the Gators, controlling 14 draw controls in route to them winning that battle 18-8 as a team. Harrison's 14 draw controls give her 135 on the season, passing Sabrina Cristodero for the most draw controls in a season at Florida. The senior is averaging 12.27 draw controls per game, good for first in the country.
The Florida defense held their opponent to under five goals for the second time this season, holding the Monarchs to just 13 shots. Heller tied a season best with two caused turnovers, along with Georgia Hoey and Elyse Finnelle stopping three shots each.