ANNAPOLIS, Md. – On a cold windy evening in Annapolis, the Navy women's lacrosse team (3-0) rolled to a 16-3 victory over George Washington (0-1) at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The Midshipmen had 10 different players score goals during the game, including five with multiple goals.
"The team collectively made a decision to come out and play hard today," head coach
Cindy Timchal said. "George Washington has some good personnel, but we were able to take an 11-1 lead into halftime. We were maybe not quite as sharp as we needed to be in the colder weather, however, we got an opportunity to play a lot of players who have worked hard and made contributions to our program. Things are never perfect, but we will continue to grow and learn from this as we prepare to go to the Mount on Wednesday. Go Navy!"
Offensively, the Midshipmen had 10 players score goals.
Leelee Denton (Nashville, Tenn.) paced the offensive attack with a team-best three goals in the game.
Lola Leone (Bay Shore, N.Y.) finished the game with two goals and two assists for a team-high four points.
Gil Eby (Towson, Md.),
Emily Messinese (Manchester, Md.), and
Reagan Roelofs (Apple Valley, Minn.) each added two goals apiece, while
Lindsay Beardmore (Annapolis, Md.),
Kasey Dietzel (Warrington, Pa.),
Kate Hartnett (Wayne, Pa.),
Jaimeson Meyer (Sandy, Utah), and
Charlotte Ryan (Tully, N.Y.) each scored.
Defensively, Navy held George Washington to just three goals in the game.
Jo Torres (Prince Frederick, Md.) earned the win at goal, finishing the game with six saves in just over 50 minutes of action.
Emma Richardell (Bethesda, Md.) logged eight minutes between the pipes with a pair of stops and no goals allowed.
Anne Culicerto (Charlotte, N.C.) finished the game, registering a clean sheet in her first collegiate action.
Navy won 19 of 23 draw controls in the game. Roelofs led the team with five draws in one quarter of play, while Messinese contributed four draws and Dietzel added a pair.
The Midshipmen jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, cruising to the victory. Navy wasted little time as Eby scratched the scoreboard less than a minute into the game. Denton and Dietzel followed to push the lead to 3-0. Roelofs scored a pair of goals around a Messinese free-position conversion to extend the margin to 6-0. GW scored a goal, but Beardmore answered to give the Mids a 7-1 advantage through one quarter.
In the second quarter, Navy extended the lead to double digits. Denton started the scoring with a free-position goal. Leone added back-to-back scores to put Navy in front 10-1. Eby took a pass from Leone and buried it in the back of the net to give the Mids an 11-1 lead heading into halftime.
The Midshipmen used goals by Ryan, Denton, and Messinese to extend the advantage to 14-1. The Colonials used a free-position goal to trim the margin to 14-2 through three quarters of play.
In the fourth quarter, Navy outscored George Washington, 2-1, to provide the final margin. Meyer opened the quarter with a goal and GW responded with a score. Hartnett made a free-position attempt to provide the final margin of 16-3.
Navy returns to action on Wednesday, Feb. 23 as the Mids travel to Emmitsburg, Md. to take on Mount St. Mary's in the first road game of the season. The Midshipmen return home on Friday, Feb. 25 for a game against Saint Joseph's.
