Women's Lacrosse Tames the Wildcats

Women’s Lacrosse Tames the Wildcats

3/14/2006

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Vanderbilt Women’s lacrosse team won its third straight game in a 16-7 triumph over visiting New Hampshire Tuesday at the VU Lacrosse Complex.

The Commodores started the scoring when Jennifer Tapscott put a shot past New Hampshire goalkeeper Ashley Milley with 25:07 to go in the first half. Less than two minutes later, Margie Curran scored the first of her four goals on the day on a pass from Kate Hickman, making the score 2-0 just six and a half minutes into the game.

The Wildcats cut the lead when Moira Talbot scored the first of her three goals on the day at the 21:40 mark.

Just 3:35 later, Margie Curran knocked in her second goal of the game, giving the ‘Dores a 3-1 lead. Again, the Wildcats would cut the lead back to one at the 14:37 mark, but that would be as close as they would get to the Commodores.

Vanderbilt would outscore the Wildcats 5-1 in the next 14 minutes, making it an 8-3 game at the half. The Commodores held an astounding 20-4 shot advantage over New Hampshire in the first stanza.

VU continued its scoring rampage in the second half when Hickman (5G, 3A) scored the second of her game-high five goals with less than three minutes ticked off the clock. Two minutes later Hickman posted her third goal of the game on a pass from Curran, giving Vanderbilt a 10-3 advantage with 25:36 to go in the game.

Vanderbilt would go on to lead by as many as 10 goals on two occasions in the contest. The Commodores outshot the Wildcats 35-14 in the victory, while also holding a 16-9 advantage in draw controls. Curran led all players with five draw controls.

“After taking 35 shots and allowing only 14 you have to give credit to both our attack and our defense,” Head Coach Cathy Swezey said. “I am happy to see that we have had three different top scorers in the last three games,” added Swezey. “Expectations are high and everyone is meeting them.”

Other goal scorers today for the Commodores included Kendall Thrift (2), Jennifer Tapscott, Cara Giordano, Ashley Paschall, Leslie Koch and Nicole Pugno.

Sasha Cielak paced the Vanderbilt defense with six groundballs and two caused turnovers. Curran and Molly Frew each caused a pair of Wildcat turnovers. With a ballooning second-half lead, Vanderbilt’s reserves played a key role in the game, including goals by Pugno and Koch, who also added four ground balls and two caused turnovers.

Additionally, M.C. Hooper picked up three ground balls and caused one turnover, while Alison Sparico had a draw control and a caused turnover for the Commodores.

Goalkeeper Brooke Shinaberry finished the day with six saves.

The next game for the Commodores is on Tuesday, March 21 at 4 p.m. CT as Cornell visits the VU Lacrosse Complex.