No. 8 Rutgers women’s lacrosse defeats Georgetown with dominant first half performance
The Rutgers women’s lacrosse team earned its third straight win of the season on Saturday after defeating Georgetown 15-8. The Scarlet Knights (3-0, 0-0) scored 9 goals in the first half, which led to a dominant 7-goal victory over the Hoyas (1-2, 0-0).
After approximately 5 minutes of the game, senior midfielder Cassidy Spilis opened the scoring for the No. 8 Rutgers and quickly added a second goal more than 2 minutes later.
Junior midfielder Mikayla Dever netted the third goal of the game, but with 2:16 left in the first period, Tatum Geist put Georgetown on the score sheet. With 10 seconds left to play in the first quarter, sophomore midfielder Emalie Clothier put the Knights up 4-1 heading into the second quarter.
Rutgers dominated the second period, scoring 5 goals and shutting out the Hoyas. Junior attacker Kate Carolonza and Spilis both scored twice in the first 8 minutes of the period to extend the Knights' lead to seven. With 3:47 remaining, graduate student attacker Marin Hartshorn scored her first goal of the day to put Rutgers in the lead 9-1 heading into halftime.
After only scoring 1 goal in the first half, Georgetown bounced back in the third quarter, scoring 6 goals. The beginning of the third quarter was back and forth, with the Knights scoring 3 goals, but the Hoyas successfully responded to each goal.
With 7:55 left to play in the third quarter, Erin Bakes started a 4-goal scoring streak for Georgetown. With momentum on the Hoyas' side heading into the final quarter, Rutgers held a slim 12-7 lead.
The Knights put the game definitively out of reach early in the fourth quarter with goals from Hartshorn, junior midfielder Ashley Moynahan and Spilis. With 9 minutes remaining, Rutgers led by 8 goals. With 1:35 remaining in the fourth quarter, Geist scored the last goal of the match and the Hoyas' 8th goal.
Spilis led the team with 6 goals, while Hartshorn netted 3 goals and provided two assists. Overall, the Knights got off 31 shots, with 22 of them being on target. Georgetown attempted 23 shots, with 17 on goal.
On defense, Rutgers forced the Hoyas into 21 turnovers and scooped up 26 ground balls. Junior goalkeeper Sophia Cardello saved nine shots to keep the Knights ahead the whole game, and senior defender Meghan Ball caused six turnovers and had eight draw controls. It was a historic day for Ball, as her career totals of 111 turnovers and 230 draw controls are the highest in program history.
Rutgers will look to continue its undefeated start to the season when it travels to West Point, New York, to face Army on Saturday. Face-off is scheduled for noon.
"Our defense really clamped down early on, and Cardello registered a ton of saves to give us plenty of offensive possessions," said head coach Melissa Lehman. "We found a rhythm on offense as well. We were really patient and were able to find open looks and bury them in the back of the net."
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