ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The No. 24 Navy women's lacrosse team (10-2, 4-0 Patriot League) welcomes Boston University (1-11, 0-5) to Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. for a Patriot League match up. The game, which will be Senior Day, will be broadcast on ESPN+ and live stats will be available.
Senior Day is presented by First Command and prior to the game, the Midshipmen will recognize the nine seniors –
Alexis Bell (Johns Creek, Ga.),
Kasey Dietzel (Warrington, Pa.),
Gil Eby (Towson, Md.),
Erin Finley (Downingtown, Pa.),
Christine Fiore (Darien, Conn.),
Bobbie Haney (Woodbine, Md.),
Grace Loughery (Perkasie, Pa.),
Reagan Roelofs (Apple Valley, Minn.), and
Jade Torres (Prince Frederick, Md.) – for their impact on the Navy women's lacrosse team.
Scouting the Midshipmen
The No. 24 Midshipmen enter the weekend 10-2 on the season, including a 4-0 mark in Patriot League play. Navy used a stellar defensive performance to post a 12-5 road victory against Colgate last Saturday afternoon at Crown Field at Andy Kerr Stadium in Hamilton, N.Y.
Offensively, Navy has tallied 228 points on 163 goals and 65 assists in 12 games. The Mids have had a balanced attack throughout the season. Of the 18 players who have scored points, 10 have been upperclassmen (juniors / seniors) and eight have been underclassmen (freshmen / sophomores). Through 12 games, the upperclassmen have registered 98 goals, accounting for 60.1% of the goals scored, while the underclassmen have tallied 65 scores. The upperclassmen have accounted for 61.8% of the points scored with 66.2% of the team's assists.
The Mids are led by
Reagan Roelofs (Apple Valley, Minn.),
Kasey Dietzel (Warrington, Pa.),
Gil Eby (Towson, Md.),
Charlotte Ryan (Tully, N.Y.),
Leelee Denton (Nashville, Tenn.), and
Lindsay Beardmore (Annapolis, Md.).
Roelofs paces the offense with a team-high 39 points on a team-best 28 goals and 11 assists. Dietzel is next with 28 points with a team-best 12 assists, while chipping in 16 goals. Eby (22g 5a) and Ryan (21g 6a) are tied with 27 points apiece, while Denton (21g 5a) and Beardmore (13g 9a) round out the 20-point scorers with 26 and 22, respectively.
The Mids have picked up 241 ground balls, won 175 draw controls, caused 85 turnovers, and tallied 114 saves.
Christine Fiore (Darian, Conn.) has grabbed a team-high 27 ground balls, while Eby and
Grace Loughery (Perkasie, Pa.) added 24 GBs apiece.
Alexis Bell (Johns Creek, Ga.) and Dietzel round out the top five with 21 ground balls each. Roelofs leads the team with 64 draw controls, while Dietzel is second with 46. Loughery leads the team with 13 caused turnovers, while Bell is second with 11. Fiore and
Erin Carson (New Albany, Ohio) have added nine and eight CT, respectively.
Jo Torres (Prince Frederick, Md.) leads the team with 101 of Navy's 114 saves in just under 690 minutes of action. Torres has earned nine victories with a 54.0 save percentage and a 7.94 goals against average. She is joined by
Emma Richardell (Bethesda, Md.) who has 13 stops in just over 65 minutes of action.
Scouting the Opponent
Boston enters the week 1-11 overall and 0-5 in the Patriot League. The Terriers picked up their first win of the season on Wednesday as BU outlasted Merrimack, 17-15.
This season, the Terriers have amassed 154 points on 115 goals and 39 assists in 12 games. Boston has won 207 draw controls with 179 ground balls and 104 caused turnovers. Terriers' goalies have combined for 120 saves with 198 goals allowed with a 37.7 save percentage and a 16.50 goals against average.
Matty Spaeth and Lauren Kaye lead Boston with 25 points apiece. Spaeth has a team-high 13 goals, while Kaye has a team-best nine assists to go with 16 goals. Jennifer Barry is third with a balanced 18 points on 10 goals and eight assists.
At goal, Reilly Agres and Kennady Smith have split starts. Agres has played in nine games with eight starts, while Smith has played in nine games with four starts. Agres has logged 423 minutes between the pipes with a team-high 70 saves and 118 goals allowed for a 16.72 goals against average, while Smith has tallied 256 minutes with 44 stops and 69 goals allowed for a 16.12 GAA.
Boston leads the Patriot League with 17.25 draw controls per game with Barry ranking first in the conference with 10.17 draws per contest.
All-Time Series
The game marks the ninth meeting between the two teams and the fourth competition in Annapolis. Navy holds a 6-2 (.750) overall record against Boston with a 2-1 mark at home. The Midshipmen have won six in a row against the Terriers.
The two teams have not met the last two seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 Patriot League season was canceled and the 2021 season saw the conference split into divisions. Navy was in the South Division and did not play Boston who was in the North Division.
Navy won the last meeting between the two teams, 13-12. The last time the two teams met in Annapolis, the Midshipmen posted a 23-6 victory over the Terriers.
Despite the Mids holding a 6-2 advantage in the series, six of the eight games played between the two teams have been decided by three goals or less with four games decided by one goal.
Bell, Torres Claim Patriot League Women's Lacrosse Weekly Honors
The Patriot League announced its weekly award winners and Navy women's lacrosse's
Alexis Bell (Johns Creek, Ga.) and
Jo Torres (Prince Frederick, Md.) were named Defensive Player and Goalkeeper of the Week, respectively. For Bell, it is her second career Patriot League honor, while it is the sixth in Torres' career.
The duo anchored a Navy defense in two games on the week, helping lead Navy to a pair of Patriot League road victories, defeating Lafayette (W, 17-5) and Colgate (W, 12-5). The tandem led the Mids' defense that held the two offenses scoreless in three of the eight quarters of play, limiting them to just five goals apiece.
National Rankings
The ILWomen / IWLCA Division I Poll was officially announced on Monday morning and the navy women's lacrosse team remained ranked in the national poll. The Mids enter the week ranked No. 24. The Mids have been ranked five consecutive weeks this season. In its history, Navy has been ranked 68 total weeks, including a streak of 47 consecutive weeks from the final poll of the 2017 season (May 30, 2017) to April 12, 2021. In addition, the Midshipmen are receiving votes according to the US Lacrosse rankings.
Last Time Out: #22 Navy 12, Colgate 5 (April 2, 2022)
The No. 22 women's lacrosse team (10-2, 4-0 Patriot League) used a stellar defensive performance to post a 12-5 road victory against Colgate (2-10, 1-3) on Saturday afternoon at Crown Field at Andy Kerr Stadium in Hamilton, N.Y.
Defensively, the Midshipmen limited the Raiders' offensive attack to just five goals on 25 shots, including 18 shots on goal. The five goals marked the second time this week that the Mids held an opponent to single digit goals and the third consecutive game without allowing double-digit scores. At goal,
Jo Torres (Prince Frederick, Md.) turned away 13 shots en route to her ninth victory of the season. It is the fifth time this season and seventh time in the sophomore's career that she has registered double-digit saves. The Mids' defense caused seven of the Raiders' 11 turnovers on the day.
Grace Loughery (Perkasie, Pa.) led the way with two caused turnovers. Navy won the ground ball game, 25-19, with Loughery pacing the team with four. Torres and
Leelee Denton (Nashville, Tenn.) added three apiece.
Offensively, six Midshipmen combined to score Navy's 12 goals with four student-athletes notching multiple goals.
Gil Eby (Towson, Md.) led the way with career-high four goals, including the game-winning goal, for her second hat trick of the season. She was joined by
Kasey Dietzel (Warrington, Pa.),
Lola Leone (Bay Shore, N.Y.), and
Reagan Roelofs (Apple Valley, Minn.) added two scores apiece, while
Christine Fiore (Darien, Conn.) and
Charlotte Ryan (Tully, N.Y.) chipped in a score each.
Navy won the draw control battle, 13-8, to give the Mids extra offensive opportunities. Roelofs finished the game with 10 draws, marking the second time this season and the 14th time in her career the senior tallied double-figure draws. Dietzel rounded out the Navy draws with three.
