ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The No. 22 women's lacrosse team (6-3, 1-0 Patriot League) travels to Lewisburg, Pa. for its first road Patriot League game as the Midshipmen take on Bucknell (4-4, 0-1 Patriot League) at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium on Saturday, March 22, at 3:00 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and live stats will be available.
 
All-Time Series
The Mids and Bison meet for the 17th time on Saturday. Navy holds a 16-0 advantage in the series, including a 7-0 mark in Lewisburg.
 
The two teams have meet on the lacrosse field each season except one, dating back to the Mids' inaugural season in 2008. The two teams did not play against one another in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, marking the first and only time the two teams did not meet during a season.
 
Last season, the Mids posted a 21-6 victory over the Bison at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The game, which was presented by First Command, served as Senior Day for the Midshipmen. Offensively, Navy scored a season-high 21 goals with ten different Midshipmen finding the back of the net with five notching multiple scores, including four hat tricks. Defensively, Navy held its ninth opponent of the season to single-digit goals, limiting Bucknell to six goals total.
 
The last time the two teams met in Lewisburg, Navy opened Patriot League play with a total team effort, defeating Bucknell at Graham Field at Holmes Stadium, 21-13. Led by five goals by Leelee Denton and Emily Messinese, the Midshipmen saw 11 different players score in the game.
 
Scouting the Midshipmen
Freshman Alyssa Chung and senior team captain Emily Messinese combined for 10 goals as No. 23 Navy began conference play with a 19-9 victory over Patriot League foe Colgate on Saturday afternoon at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium to improve to 6-3 on the season.
 
As a team, the Midshipmen have tallied 130 goals with 51 assists, while picking up 151 ground balls, winning 143 draw controls, and causing 63 turnovers.
 
Entering the weekend, Messinese leads the team with 37 points on a team-high 26 goals and a team-best 11 assists. The senior team captain opened conference play, tying a career-high in goals (5) and points (7) to give Messinese her sixth hat trick in nine games on the year. She now has 30 hat tricks, which is the eighth-most in program history and is one behind Jasmine DePompeo ('13) for seventh.
 
Messinese is followed by Chung and Mikayla Williams who have 24 points each. Chung is second on the team with 22 goals, while adding two assists for her 24 points. Most recently, the freshman posted a career-best five goals against Colgate on her way to Patriot League Rookie of the Week accolades. Williams has 17 goals and seven helpers for her 24 points, scoring at least one goal in every game this season with five multi-goal games, including a pair of hat tricks. 
 
Emma Kennedy is one point back of Chung and Williams. The junior has 19 goals and four assists for 23 total points to close out Navy's players with 20 or more points.
 
Ava Yovino, Tori DiCarlo, and Taylor Miles round out Navy's double-digit point scorers. Yovino has 19 points on a balanced 10 goals and nine assists. DiCarlo adds 11 goals, while Miles is three back of DiCarlo with eight scores. DiCarlo and Miles both have four helpers giving the duo 15 and 12 points, respectively.
 
Eight additional Midshipmen have registered points during the season. Maggie DeFabio (3g 6a) and Lola Leone (4g 1a) follow with nine and five points, correspondingly. Kat McAteer and Maura Murphy are tied with three points apiece, each netting three goals on the year. Chloe Brown has two points on a pair of free-position goals, while Bella Paradiso has two points on a couple of assists. Caroline Gage (1g) and Anna Gotterup (1a) close out Navy's point scorers with one point apiece.
 
Defensively, Navy has caused 63 of its opponents 122 turnovers (51.6 percent), including 23 unsuccessful clear attempts. Felicia Giglio leads the team with 11 caused turnovers with DeFabio and Jaclyn Johns adding nine takeaways apiece. Yovino follows with six caused turnovers, while Chung and Williams have five apiece. Grace Peterson and Messinese add four takeaways each with Jalin Jenkins and Miles contributing three CTs individually.
 
Giglio leads the team with 25 ground balls with Yovino, DeFabio, Williams, and Patterson following with 19, 18, 13, and 12, congruently. Johns and Messinese have nine ground balls apiece with Chung following with eight. Jenkins has won seven ground balls with Gage adding six GB.
 
Giglio has notched 70 saves in 523:12 minutes of action, while adding 11 caused turnovers and 25 ground balls. The sophomore goalkeeper is averaging 9.33 saves per game in her last six games, registering 11 saves against Harvard, 10 at No. 11 Virginia, 11 against High Point, eight at Jacksonville, 11 at No. 6 Florida, and five versus Colgate. Four of Giglio's five double-digit save performances have come in the last six games she has played.
 
Alyssa Daley leads all players with 73 draw victories. With her 10 draw wins earlier in the year against Harvard, Daley topped the 300-draw plateau, becoming the third player in program history with 300 or more draw controls. She joined Loren Generi ('15) and Reagan Roelofs ('22) who had 493 and 390, respectively. Daley currently has 341 career draws, which is 49 back of Roelofs.
 
Messinese has chipped in 30 draw controls while Williams has won 23 draws.
 
Scouting the Opposition
The Bison are currently on a two-game losing streak after dropping their last two games to South Florida and Boston University. Bucknell is now an even 4-4 heading into its first home Patriot League game against Navy.
 
The top-three point grabbers for Bucknell are Taylor McClain with 17 (3g 14a), Allie Boyce with 16 (14g 2a) and Alex Nesbitt with 16 (10g 6a).
 
Boyce is third place in Bucknell history in career goals with 130 total and is ten goals away from second. Boyce ranks third nationally in free-position percentage with eight free-position goals on 10 shots.
 
McClain is currently in third place in Bucknell history for career assists with 75 and is three assists away from earning second place.
 
Colleen Kazanjian has logged a majority of minutes between the posts at goal for Bucknell. She has 55 saves with 80 goals allowed for a 40.7 save percentage and an 11.19 goals against average. Additionally, she has picked up 11 ground balls and caused three turnovers.
 
Bucknell ranks 11th nationally in caused turnovers per game with 11.5 and seventh nationally in ground balls per game with 20.
 
Chung Named Patriot League Rookie of the Week
The Patriot League announced its weekly women's lacrosse awards and Navy freshman Alyssa Chung was selected as the Rookie of the Week. It is the second time this season that Chung has earned the honor.
 
She helped lead Navy to a 1-1 record on the week, including a 1-0 mark in the Patriot League, dropping a one-goal decision on the road to No. 6 Florida (L, 14-13) and posting a 10-goal victory over Colgate (W, 19-9).
 
On the week, Chung led the team with nine points on a team-high nine goals. The freshman opened the week with four goals against the top-10 Gators, giving Chung her third four-goal performance of her young career. In her first Patriot League game, she notched a career-high five goals to help lead the Mids to a 10-goal victory over the Raiders.
 
In nine career games, Chung has six multi-goal performance with five hat tricks.
 
National Rankings
The Navy women's lacrosse team is currently ranked in two of the three national polls. The Midshipmen are No. 22 in the IWLCA Coaches Poll rankings this week, while coming in at No. 24 in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll. Additionally, the Mids are receiving votes according to USA Lacrosse.
 
In its history, Navy has been ranked 99 total weeks, including a stretch of 46 weeks from the final poll of 2017 (May 30) to April 5, 2021. The Mids' first appearance in the national rankings came on March 11, 2013, coming in at No. 20. The Midshipmen's highest ranking – sixth – came in the final polls of the 2017 and 2018 seasons. Last season, the Midshipmen were in the top 25 poll for seven weeks, rising as high as No. 17 and finishing the season 20th.
 
Up Next
Following the game at Bucknell, Navy returns home for a nationally-televised game against No. 17 Loyola (5-5, 2-0) at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The game will be broadcast on the CBS Sports Network. Additionally, the game will be on the radio, airing on 1430 AM / 99.9 FM WNAV. The radio broadcast is also available on wnav.com and on WNAV on the Audacy app.