No. 24 Rutgers women's lacrosse downs Army to continue strong start to season
The Rutgers women's lacrosse team continued its strong start to the season with a 16-9 win over Army on Saturday afternoon. The Scarlet Knights (4-0, 0-0) never trailed the Black Knights (0-4, 0-0) in what was a dominant win at SHI Stadium on Busch campus.
Senior midfielder Ashley Moynahan scored the 1st goal of the game after approximately 3 minutes of play, but Army was able to respond with a tally from Carleigh Armstrong.
Freshman midfielder Payton Tini then started what was a 4-0 scoring run for No. 24 Rutgers. Graduate student midfielder Cassidy Spilis scored the next 3 goals, completing her hat trick in just the first quarter.
The Black Knights would net the last goal of the quarter from Julia Gorajek. The Knights led 5-2 after the first 15 minutes of the game.
Ten seconds into the second quarter, Lily Valentini slammed the ball into the back of the net to make it a 2-point contest. Rutgers would score 2 more goals courtesy of sophomore attacker Ava Kane and sophomore attacker and midfielder Lily Dixon to once again extend the lead. Both teams would trade goals to end the quarter, but the Knights led 8-4 at halftime.
Rutgers entered the second half of the game ready to fight for the win. The Knights scored 3 goals within the span of the first 5 minutes of the quarter from Dixon, Spilis and Kane.
Army would score 3 more goals in the third quarter, while Rutgers scored 2 goals to own a 13-7 lead heading into the final quarter.
Spilis and Tini both netted goals to begin the fourth quarter. The Black Knights then found the back of the net twice through Armstrong and Allison Reilly, but that would be the last time Army scored in the game. Dixon would net the final goal of the affair.
The Knights ended the game with 30 shots, 19 draw controls, 13 ground balls and 14 turnovers. Spilis netted 5 goals to increase her goal tally to 18 on the season. Dixon tallied a career-high 6 points off 3 goals and three assists.
Between the pipes, senior goalkeeper Sophia Cardello continued her strong start to the season with 10 saves.
Rutgers will stay in New Jersey for an in-state rivalry road game with Princeton on Wednesday. The game will begin at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on Big Ten Plus and 88.7 WRSU-FM.
"We have standards as a team that we want to hit throughout the game, and we hit every single one of them today," said head coach Melissa Lehman. "I am super proud of this team. Our defense played lockdown defense on a great Army team, and we possessed the ball for the majority of the game."
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