Florida clinched a share of its fourth American Athletic Conference regular-season title as the Gators won their 14th striaght game to highlight Saturday's women's lacrosse action in The American.
James Madison remains a game behind the Gators in the standings after the Dukes pulled away for a win against Vanderbilt. And East Carolina edged Old Dominion to pick up its first conference win of the season.
FLORIDA 18, CINCINNATI 6
CINCINNATI, Ohio – The No. 9 Florida lacrosse team (14-2, 5-0 AAC) won their 14th straight game of the season, defeating their AAC counterpart Cincinnati (10-6, 2-3 AAC) by a score of 18-6 on Saturday afternoon.
The Gators never trailed in this contest, and led by as many 13 goals. They used two 7-0 runs, one in the first and one in the second half to create the separation needed to pull away.
Florida had 10 different goal scorers, charged ahead by the trio of Maggi Hall (three goals, three assists), Danielle Pavinelli (three goals, one assist), and Ashley Gonzalez (three goals, two assists), who combined for nine of the teams 18 goals, six of the teams eight assists, and 15 of the teams 26 points. Emily Heller and Gianna Monaco contributed with multi goal games, along with Madison Waters, Hannah Heller, Cate Isaacson, Gabbi Koury and Sarah Falk who scored one each.
Florida doubled up Cincinnati in the draw circle, winning that battle 18-9. Liz Harrison got back on track, winning 14 draw controls which was good for her 12th double digit game of the season.
The Gators defense held the Bearcats to six goal on 20.7-percent shooting, as Ashley Dyer set career highs in ground balls and caused turnovers with three each. Pavinelli tied a career high three caused turnovers, and Hall scooped three ground balls. Elyse Finnelle was lock down in net again, re-setting her career high saving 14 shots. This was her second straight game with 10 or more saves, and her fourth overall.
JAMES MADISON 17, VANDERBILT 8
HARRISONBURG, Va. – No. 16 James Madison lacrosse dominated all sides of play to defeat American Athletic Conference opponent Vanderbilt 17-8 on Saturday afternoon at Sentara Park.
The Dukes (11-4, 4-1) outdrew the Commodores (8-7, 2-3) by a 20-8 margin and caused 19 turnovers as opposed to Vanderbilt's nine, lifting the team to victory in the final home game of the season.
Three Dukes notched hat tricks with four scores coming from senior attacker Isabella Peterson, three from graduate student attacker Kacey Knobloch and three from sophom*ore attacker Maddie Epke. Senior attacker Katelyn Morgan notched two goals and added six assists on the day, while JMU saw three other goal scorers and four other players with helpers.
The Dukes' defensive side of the ball was led by senior defender Lizzy Pirisino, senior midfielder Taylor Marchetti and sophom*ore midfielder Lauren Savage. Pirisino secured four ground balls and caused four turnovers, Marchetti collected two ground balls while recording four caused turnovers, and Savage tallied three ground balls and three caused turnovers.
Peterson and Epke collected nine ground balls each while senior defender Nicholle Marshall added her first of the season and redshirt-junior collected the first of her career.
Sophom*ore goalkeeper Caitlin Boden made seven saves on 24 shots faced, allowing eight goals and posting a .467 save percentage.
Ella Smith led both the offensive and defensive side of the ball for Vanderbilt, recording one goal, three assists, five ground balls and two caused turnovers. Commodores' goalkeeper Paige Gunning made 17 saves on 43 shots faced, allowing 17 goals and amassing a .500 save percentage.
EAST CAROLINA 11, OLD DOMINION 10
GREENVILLE, N.C. - It was a nail-biter in Johnson Stadium as Erin Gulden's score with 2:00 remaining pushed the East Carolina Lacrosse team by Old Dominion, 11-10, on Saturday afternoon. The Pirates led for much of the game as they held of multiple ODU comeback efforts.
It was perhaps fitting that it was ROTC Cadet Gulden who starred for the Pirates (4-11. 1-5 AAC) as the team wrapped up their home season with Military Appreciation Day. The junior finished the game with two goals, an assist and five draw controls which matched her career high from 2023. Gulden was one of five Pirates who tallied a pair on Saturday as Frances Kimel, Ellie Bromley, Emily Stratton and Riley Mattheisen all found the back of the net twice on the day.
For Bromley and Gulden, the game featured extra significance as each player eclipsed 100 career points in the game.
The Pirates looked the part of the better team for parts of the game, jumping out to a 3-1 lead after one quarter and eventually a 6-3 halftime lead. By the end of the third, though, things had evened up. The Monarchs (3-12, 0-5 AAC) had righted the ship and leveled the game at seven entering the final 15 minutes of play. In doing so, ODU leveled many of the team statistics in the game as the final margins wound up as follows: saves, 13-11 to ODU; draw controls, 13-12 to ECU; turnovers, 12-10 to ECU; caused turnovers, seven apiece. The Pirates also won the shooting margin by 32-28 total and 24-21 in shots on goal.
In the fourth, the Pirates were never able to push ahead by more than two goals but rose to the occasion when called upon. The two critical moments of the game came at the end. First, Gulden made a tremendous solo effort, working from behind the cage to wrap around and place a shot in the lower left corner, putting ECU ahead for the final time.
On the final possession, the Pirates held firm, standing tall on a free position attempt with 65 seconds remaining which wound up eventually with a save for Brynn Knight. Maddie Kercher and Courtney Frank were also in on the play, preventing Sydney Taylor from getting power on the shot. From there, the Pirates cleared the ball successfully and managed to play keep-away to run out the clock on their fourth win of the year.
Knight got the start in goal for the Pirates and earned what was her 20th career victory, making 11 saves in the effort.
