ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The No. 21 Navy women's lacrosse team (11-5, 6-2 Patriot League) takes on American (5-10, 1-7 Patriot League) on Thursday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. at the Jacobs Recreational Complex. The game will be the broadcast on ESPN+ and live stats will be available.
 
All-Time Series
The game marks the 20th meeting between the two teams in women's lacrosse. Navy holds an 18-1 (.947) overall record against American. The Mids are 9-0 (1.000) against the Eagles in Annapolis with an 8-1 (.889) mark in D.C.
 
The two teams have met every season since Navy joined the Patriot League with the exception of 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic as no Patriot League games were played that season.
 
The Midshipmen claimed the first meeting between the two teams, 13-12, at home in 2008. The Eagles evened the season later that season with a 17-15 victory in Washington, D.C. at the Patriot League Tournament. Since the American victory, Navy has won 17 consecutive meetings between the two teams.
 
Last time the two teams met in Washington, Navy used a total team effort to post a 17-8 victory over American at the Jacobs Recreational Complex. The defense tied a season-high with 15 caused turnovers, while the offense posted the third most goals of the season in the win.
 
Last season, the Midshipmen used numerous career-best performances to post an 18-10 victory over the Eagles at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. As a team, Navy tied the school record with 27 draw controls in a game. Needing three draw control wins to set the Navy single-season record for draws, Alyssa Daley finished with 16 draw controls, giving her 167 draws for the season. The 16 draw wins in a game was fourth in program history behind Reagan Roelofs' school record of 18 draws and Daley's career-best 17 that she accomplished twice this year – at Holy Cross and vs. Army.
 
Scouting the Midshipmen
No. 22 Navy posted an 18-4 victory over Lafayette on Saturday afternoon at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The game, which was presented by First Command, served as Senior Day for the Midshipmen. Prior to the game, the Mids recognized eight senior players – Alyssa Daley, Tori DiCarlo, Lizzie Kelley, Lola Leone, Megan Marengo, Emily Messinese, Grace Peterson, and Emma Richardell.
 
With the win, the Midshipmen improved to 11-5 overall and 6-2 in the Patriot League.
 
As a team, the Midshipmen have tallied 252 goals with 104 assists, while picking up 255 ground balls, winning 284 draw controls, and causing 119 turnovers.
 
Entering the weekend, Alyssa Chung and Messinese lead the team with 63 and 60 points, respectively. Chung has a team-high 51 goals with 12 assists, while Messinese has 38 goals and a team-best 22 helpers.
 
Chung has recorded 13 multi-goal performances in her young career (16 games total), including 11 hat tricks. In eight Patriot League games, Chung leads Navy with 44 points (5.50 per game) on a team-best 34 goals (4.25), while adding 10 assists (1.25). She has recorded multiple goals in all eight conference games this season with seven hat tricks. For her efforts, Chung has been named Patriot League Rookie of the Week six (6) consecutive times and a conference-record seven times total.
 
With eight hat tricks this season this season, Messinese has 32 career hat tricks (59 games played), which is seventh-most in program history. She is two (2) hat tricks back of Kathy Young ('13) for sixth in school history. In total, Messinese has scored at least one goal in 56 games (.949) with multiple scores in 44 games (.746).
 
Mikayla Williams follows with 52 points. The sophomore is second on the team with 39 goals, while adding 13 assists. Emma Kennedy and DiCarlo are tied with 37 points apiece. Kennedy has 30 goals and seven assists in 16 games this season, while DiCarlo has 26 goals and 11 helpers for 37 points.
 
Ava Yovino, Maggie DeFabio, and Taylor Miles round out Navy's 20-point scorers with 26, 25, 24 points in order. Yovino has 15 goals and 11 helpers for her 26 points, while DeFabio has 15 goals and 10 assists for 25 points. Miles is one point back with 13 goals and 11 assists for 24 total points.
 
Ten (10) additional Midshipmen have registered points during the season. Leone (6g 2a) has eight points, while Maura Murphy adds five points on five scores. Anna Gotterup has four points on three goals and an assist, while Chloe Brown, Caroline Gage, and Kat McAteer are tied with three points apiece, each netting three goals. Bella Paradiso has two points on a couple of assists. Kelley has a point on a goal scored, while Daley and Peterson close out Navy's point scorers with one point on an assist each.
 
Defensively, Navy has caused 119 of its opponents 221 turnovers (53.8 percent), including 51 unsuccessful clear attempts. Jaclyn Johns leads the team with 17 caused turnovers, while DeFabio follows with 16 takeaways. Felicia Giglio has recorded 14 caused turnovers with Yovino and Peterson notching 12 and 10 takeaways, respectively, to round out Navy's double-digit caused turnovers.
 
Giglio leads the team with 37 ground balls with Yovino following with 29 and DeFabio picking up 26. Messinese, Peterson, and Williams have 18 apiece, while Johns follows with 16 GB. Chung (12), Jalin Jenkins (11), Gage (11), and Miles (10) round out the Mids' double-digit ground balls.
 
Giglio has notched 110 saves in 887 minutes of action in 16 games played. The 110 saves surpassed her season total of 102 from a year ago during the 19-game season. The sophomore goalkeeper has six double-digit save performances, including four against ranked opponents. Emma Richardell has logged 78 minutes of action in nine games with 10 saves and a 55.6 save percentage.
 
Daley leads the team with 177 draw controls, which is 14 draw wins shy of tying the Navy single-season record (191) she set last season. The senior has 445 career draws and is 48 back of matching Navy career leader Loren Generi ('15), who finished her Midshipmen career with 493.
 
Messinese has chipped in 43 draw controls while Williams has won 40 draws.
 
Scouting the Opposition
A defensive battle that saw both teams cause over 10 turnovers was broken open by the Terriers in the fourth quarter, as the American University lacrosse team fell 12-5 at home on Saturday. Caleigh Forti made 15 saves in the contest, and Reagan Murdoch had a hat trick to lead the offensive effort for AU. The Eagles dropped to 5-10 overall and 1-7 in Patriot League play.
 
Murdoch and Maddy Spratt lead American with 45 and 43 points. Murdoch has a team-best 45 points on a team-high 38 goals, while adding seven assists. Spratt has 26 goals and a team-best 17 assists for her 43 points. Kellie Linehan (29g 9a), Becca Frank (21g 15a), and Alyssa Apuzzo (13g 15a) round out AU's top-five point scorers with 38, 36, and 28 points, respectively. Annabelle Jackson closes out the Eagles' double-digit scorers with 22 points on 15 goals and seven assists.
 
Forti leads the team with 30 ground balls in goal, while Jenna Walls has a team-high 21 ground balls among position players. Walls leads the team with 18 caused turnovers with Deirde Brown following with 14 takeaways. Spratt leads American with 76 draw controls with Murdoch adding 24.
 
Forti has played all 15 games at goal for the Eagles. The senior has logged nearly 836 minutes with 186 goals allowed and 159 saves for a 46.1 save percentage and a 13.35 goals against average.
 
National Rankings
The Navy women's lacrosse team is currently ranked in two of the three national polls. The Midshipmen are No. 21 in the IWLCA Coaches Poll rankings this week, while coming in at No. 22 in the Inside Lacrosse Media poll.
 
In its history, Navy has been ranked 104 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.
 
Women's Lacrosse Duo Earns Patriot League Weekly Honors
The Patriot League announced its weekly award winners and Navy women's lacrosse student-athletes Alyssa Daley and Alyssa Chung were selected after they helped lead Navy to a pair of victories on the week, defeating Lehigh, 21-5, on Wednesday and posting an 18-4 win over Lafayette on Saturday for Senior Day. Daley was named Defensive Player of the Week, while Chung was tabbed Rookie of the Week for the seventh time this season and the sixth consecutive week.
 
Chung's seven rookie of the week honors match Navy's Kelly Larkin and Loyola's Livy Rosenzweig for the League's single-season record.
 
Daley won 35 of Navy's 45 draws on the week, helping the Midshipmen control possession and limiting Lehigh and Lafayette to just 27 shots combined in two games. Against Lehigh, the draw control specialist became the first player in program history with 20 or more draws in a game as she recorded a new school record of 21 draw controls, breaking her own single-game school record of 19 that she set earlier in the year on the road at Boston University. Against Lafayette, Daley finished with 14 of Navy's 21 draw controls.
 
Chung led all players with 12 points on a team-high nine goals with three assists in two games, while adding a ground ball and a caused turnover. The freshman opened the week with a team-high seven points on a team-best six goals and an assist against Lehigh. The seven points tied a career high, while the six goals were a new best for the rookie. Against Lafayette, the freshman finished with five points on three goal and two assists.
 
Up Next
The Midshipmen return home to host a Patriot League Tournament Quarterfinal game against an undetermined opponent on Sunday, April 27 at 12:00 p.m. at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The game will be the broadcast on ESPN+, aired on WNAV, and live stats will be available.