Feb. 26, 2017
GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Vanderbilt Commodores (2-1) looked to rebound from their tough loss to Louisville earlier in the week and did just that Sunday afternoon. The Commodores defeated the Furman Paladins (1-2) 18-8 after a complete game effort from the ‘Dores.
“I think we had a really good game plan going in and we executed that plan,” said head coach Cathy Swezey. “Overall just a great performance today, especially some of the individual performances. Jill Doherty had three goals, four assists, two caused turnovers and four draw controls. Kayla Peterson had six goals and freshmen Avery Hoelting and Gwyn Devin scored their first collegiate goals today.”
The Commodores were led offensively by a two-headed attack of Jill Doherty and Kayla Peterson. Peterson scored a career-high six goals and tied a team-high four draw controls to lead the Commodores. Doherty had an overall game with three goals, a team-high four assists, four draw controls and two caused turnovers.
On the back-line, the Commodore defense had another strong game holding the Paladins to just three first half goals. Junior Margaret Fee caused a team-high four turnovers, secured three ground balls and dished out two assists. Lexi Smith caused two turnovers of her own along with a ground ball.
In the cage, Callahan Kent picked up her second win of the season. She made seven saves on 22 total shots while allowing seven goals. Lily Argyle made her second appearance of the season in relief and made two saves of her own.
Kayla Peterson scored four minutes into the game for the ‘Dores off the assist from Caroline Peters. Furman answered three minutes later to tie the game at one.
Vanderbilt ripped off three straight goals in less than a minute out of the tie. The goals came from Kayla Peterson, Abby Quirk and Melanie Becker and caused Furman to use a timeout.
The ‘Dores kept the momentum going with two more goals coming out of the Furman timeout. Gwyn Devin scored her first collegiate goal followed by Jill Doherty’s first goal of the game.
Furman would get two straight goals to tighten the game to 6-3 but the ‘Dores answered right back.
Melanie Becker and Kayla Peterson scored for the Commodores right before the half and gave them an 8-3 advantage at the break.
The second half was more of the same for the ‘Dores as they scored three of the first four goals of the half. Kayla Peterson scored two of the goals while Doherty had the other to give the Commodores an 11-4 lead.
Vanderbilt would add seven more goals the rest of the game from Becker (1), Blaze (2), Peterson (1), Doherty (1), Brown (1) and Hoelting (1). Hadley Brown netted her first goal of the season and Avery Hoelting scored her first collegiate goal in the second half.
The Commodores will have another long break before they are back on the field again. They will travel to face Elon next Wednesday, March 8. That game will begin at 5 pm CT.
