Feb. 22, 2012
Box Score
WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. - Junior Kathy Young (Berwyn, Pa.) scored four goals as the Navy women's lacrosse team (3-1) defeated Monmouth (0-2), 13-4, on Wednesday afternoon at Kessler Field. Navy has now won three straight games.
"We are pleased to get our first road victory of the season and we played a solid first half today," head coach Cindy Timchal said. "Our offense did some good things and our defense played extremely well to allow just four goals to an opponent."
Young scored three of her four goals in the second half. Young also contributed four draw controls, two ground balls and one caused turnover. This is Young's second straight game with four goals.
Freshman Loren Generi (Bayport, N.Y.) and sophomore attack Aimee Gennaro (Havertown, Pa.) scored the first two goals of the game before Monmouth tallied its first strike. The Mids then took control of the game and closed the first half with five straight goals, including one each from Generi, Young and sophomore Molly Hamilton (New Albany, Ohio) and two by junior attack Jasmine DePompeo (Sayville, N.Y.) to take a 7-1 lead into halftime.
Monmouth came out fast in the second half, scoring the first two goals to cut the lead to 7-3, but Gennaro and Young answered to extend Navy's lead back to six at 9-3.
After Monmouth tallied again with 10:33 to play to cut the lead to five, Navy changed goalies and then went on a 4-0 run to finish the contest and secure the 13-4 win. Young scored two free-position goals during the final run and senior Danielle Vivonetto (Rocky Point, N.Y.) and Hamilton also scored. Vivonetto's goal came after a five-minute drought and kept the momentum in Navy's favor.
Senior goalie Elaina Ponchione (Silver Spring, Md.) earned her second win of the season by playing the first 49 minutes, making six saves and allowing four goals. Junior Michelle Verbeeck (Wading River, N.Y.) was flawless over the final 10 minutes, making three saves and allowing no goals.
"Elaina was solid in the first half and had some big saves," Timchal said. "We also wanted to use Michelle and we feel we have a very good 1-2 punch with Elaina starting and Michelle closing. Defensively we had Dominique Wright (Sr., Washington, D.C.) and Brijet Mall (Jr., Cumming, Ga.) playing on Monmouth's top two players and they did a very good job."
Navy has now held an opponent to just four goals for the second straight game after defeating Longwood on Saturday, 20-4.
The Mids were also perfect on clears for the second straight game, successfully clearing 14-of-14 opportunities. The Mids were 13-of-13 against Longwood in clears and now own a .943 (50-of-53) clearing percentage on the season.
Navy out shot Monmouth, 31-20, in the game and held a 20-9 edge in the category at the break. Of Navy's 31 shots, 25 were on goal.
Navy also led in draw controls, 15-4, with junior Beth Young (Berwyn, Pa.) controlling four draws and Generi grabbing six.
The Mids are now 11-0 all-time against members of the Northeast Conference and 2-0 against Monmouth.
Four different players scored for the Hawks and goalie Katie Donohoe allowed 13 goals with 12 saves.
Navy will play its second of three straight road games at Davidson on Saturday at 12 noon.
Notes: Timchal raises her career record to 397-106 and is just three wins shy of becoming the first college lacrosse coach at any level and for either gender to win 400 career games ... five of Navy's goals were on free-position attempts.
