ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The No. 22 Navy women's lacrosse team (7-4, 2-1 Patriot League) continues play in the Patriot League as the Midshipmen travel to Boston to take on Boston University (7-3, 2-1 Patriot League) at Nickerson Field at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 29. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and live stats will be available.
 
The Midshipmen are looking for their 250th win in program history. Navy enters the game with a 249-79 overall record. In addition, a win over the Terriers would be Navy's 100th regular season Patriot League win. The Mids are 99-25 in regular season conference games heading into the weekend.
 
All-Time Series
The game marks the 13th meeting between the two teams and the fifth competition in Boston. Navy holds a 9-3 (.750) overall record against Boston with a 3-1 mark in Beantown. Last season, the Midshipmen defeated the Terriers, 20-9 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
 
The Mids have won nine of the last 10 meetings in the series. The Midshipmen had won seven in a row against the Terriers prior to BU's one-goal victory (W, 12-11) in Boston during the 2023 season. Navy avenged the loss later in the season in the first round of the Patriot League Tournament, defeating BU, 20-13, in Annapolis.
 
Seven (7) of the 12 games played between the two teams have been decided by three goals or less with five games decided by one goal. All four contests played in Boston have been decided by three goals or less.
 
Second-year BU assistant coach Brindi Griffin used to be an assistant coach with Navy, spending two seasons with the Midshipmen (2022-23), helping the Mids to 28 victories during her tenure.
 
Scouting the Midshipmen
Despite five-goal efforts by freshman Alyssa Chung and sophomore Mikayla Williams, Navy dropped a heartbreaker in overtime to No. 17 Loyola, 20-19, on Wednesday night in Annapolis. In addition to a stellar offensive performance by the Mids, sophomore goalkeeper Felicia Giglio set a new career high with 12 saves in the cage for the Midshipmen. Navy enters the weekend 7-4 overall and 2-1 in the Patriot League.
 
As a team, the Midshipmen have tallied 166 goals with 66 assists, while picking up 178 ground balls, winning 177 draw controls, and causing 83 turnovers.
 
Entering the weekend, Emily Messinese leads the team with 45 points on 30 goals and a team-best 15 assists. The senior team captain notched a hat trick against the Greyhounds, including the equalizer with four seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to force overtime. The hat trick was the seventh of the season for Messinese. She has 31 career hat tricks, which is tied with Jasmine DePompeo ('13) for seventh-most in program history. Messinese is three hat tricks back of Kathy Young ('13) for sixth in school history.
 
Messinese is followed by Chung and Williams who have 37 and 35 points, respectively. Chung has the team-lead in goals scored with 32, while adding five assists for her 37 points. The freshman has posted three consecutive games with five goals (Colgate, Bucknell, No. 17 Loyola) to begin her Patriot League career. Williams has 27 goals and eight helpers for her 35 points, scoring at least one goal in every game this season with seven multi-goal games, including four hat tricks. Williams set a new personal best with five goals against Bucknell and matched that total with five scores against No. 17 Loyola for 10 goals in her last two games played.
 
Emma Kennedy and Ava Yovino close out Navy's 20-point scorers. Kennedy has 25 points on 21 goals and four helpers, while Yovino has a balanced 20 points on 10 goals and 10 assists.
 
Taylor Miles, Tori DiCarlo, and Maggie DeFabio round out Navy's double-digit point scorers. DiCarlo and Miles are tied with 19 points apiece, while DeFabio follows with 13. DiCarlo boasts 15 goals and four assists for 19 points with Miles scoring 11 times to go along with eight helpers. DeFabio is six points back with 13 points on five goals and eight helpers.
 
Seven additional Midshipmen have registered points during the season. Lola Leone (4g 1a) has five points, while Kat McAteer and Maura Murphy are tied with three points apiece, each netting three goals on the year. Chloe Brown and Caroline Gage have two points on a pair of goals each, while Bella Paradiso has two points on a couple of assists. Anna Gotterup closes out Navy's point scorers with one point on an assist.
 
Defensively, Navy has caused 83 of its opponents 149 turnovers (55.7 percent), including 28 unsuccessful clear attempts. Jaclyn Johns leads the team with 13 caused turnovers with DeFabio and Giglio following with 12 takeaways apiece. Yovino adds nine caused turnovers, while Chung and Grace Peterson have seven apiece. Williams adds five caused turnovers with Jalin Jenkins and Messinese registering four takeaways each.
 
Giglio leads the team with 30 ground balls with Yovino following with 24 GB. DeFabio, Peterson, and Williams follow with 18, 14, and 14, congruently. Johns has won 12 ground balls with Jenkins and Messinese rounding out the Mids' double-digit ground balls with 10 apiece.
 
Giglio has notched 88 saves in 644 minutes of action, while adding 12 caused turnovers and 30 ground balls. The sophomore goalkeeper has six double-digit save performances, including four against ranked opponents – 10 at No. 7 Loyola (2024); 10 at No. 11 Virginia (2025); 11 at No. 6 Florida (2025); and 12 vs. No. 17 Loyola (2025). Five of Giglio's six double-digit save performances have come in the last eight games she has played.
 
Alyssa Daley leads all players with 93 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 361 career draws, which is 29 back of Roelofs.
 
Messinese has chipped in 35 draw controls while Williams has won 30 draws.
 
Scouting the Opposition
Boston University enters the weekend 7-4 overall with a 2-1 mark in the Patriot League. BU is coming off three straight wins, including two over PL foes.
 
The Terriers rolled to a 17-8 win at Lafayette on the road on March 22, avenging three previous losses to the Leopards. BU bookended the game with impressive quarters, taking a 5-1 lead after the first quarter and closing out the game with a 7-2 final frame.
 
Sophomore Izabella Amonte has scored 23 goals this season and has 27 points, leading the team in both categories. With her four goals against Lafayette, Amonte became the first Terrier to score 20-plus goals in her first 10 career games since 2012, when Mallory Collins had 31 in her first 10 games.
 
Amonte and sophomore Tessa Geddes both have excelled on free positions. Both are averaging 0.90 free position goals per game and are converting them at a 60 percent rate. Those numbers are tied for fourth in the Patriot League.
 
In net, sophomore goalkeeper Natalie Aiosa has notched three straight games with a save percentage greater than .500. She is second in the Patriot League in save percentage (.513) and leads the PL in saves per game (10.10). In the NCAA rankings, Aiosa is 11th in save percentage and 17th in saves per game.
 
BU's defense has excelled this season and in recent games, averaging just 8.00 goals against in the past three contests. BU ranks 23rd in the country and second in the PL with a 9.70 GAA this season.
 
Freshman Kaitlyn Barton has been a force on the draw this season, grabbing 51 this year. She is eighth in the PL in draw controls per game (5.10).
 
Graduate student Kendall Sims has come alive in her final year, notching seven points in her last three games. She scored her fourth career hat trick at Lafayette and currently is fifth in the PL in ground balls per game with 2.33, also leading the Terriers.
 
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. 25 in the Inside Lacrosse Media poll. Additionally, the Mids are receiving votes according to USA Lacrosse.
 
In its history, Navy has been ranked 100 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 #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 #17 and finishing the season 20th.
 
Up Next
Following the game with Boston University, Navy returns home for a weekend game against Holy Cross on Saturday, April 5 at 12:00 p.m. at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and live stats will be available. 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.