HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University women’s lacrosse team cruised to a 17-4 victory over Presbyterian College on Saturday afternoon at Vert Stadium. Grace Gaeng and Mackenzie Carroll each posted three goals and three assists and sophomore Kelsy Mugele had two goals and three assists in the win.
“This was a good team effort with 10 players scoring today,” said HPU head coach Lyndsey Boswell. “We’ve had some injuries so we needed some players like Kelsy Mugele to step into the lineup and contribute. We did well in a lot of the scrappy areas like caused turnovers and ground balls. Now we just want to have a few good days of practice before we play Duke on Wednesday.”
Gaeng also had four caused turnovers, two draw controls and two ground balls in addition to her six points. Mugele grabbed six ground balls. Freshman Kendyl Gardner scored twice and had four ground balls and sophomore Sara Kuhlman netted a pair of goals.
Four different players scored for Presbyterian College. Senior midfielder Kirstin Stenoien scored a goal and grabbed four ground balls and had a caused turnover.
High Point improved to 8-2 overall and 2-0 in the National Lacrosse Conference while Presbyterian dropped to 1-11 overall and 0-2 in the NLC
The Panthers jumped out to a four-goal lead and never looked back. Gaeng started it off with a goal in the first minute on an assist by Mugele. Making her first start of the season, Mugele scored the next goal just 1:20 into action on Carroll’s first assist of the day. Presbyterian’s Brianne Ward scored with 21:03 to go in the first half following the Blue Hose’s first draw control of the game, getting her team on the board. High Point reeled off five more in a row capped by Christie Dougherty’s 19th goal of the season.
With 26 seconds left in the first half, Presbyterian’s Stenoien scored on an assist from Jamie Beamish. High Point answered right back with a goal by Gardner eight seconds before halftime, making it 10-2 at the break.
With 27:40 remaining in the game, Mugele scored her second goal on an assist from Gaeng and HPU led 13-2 when sophomore defender Jasmine Jordan scored her first goal of the season with 18:21 to go.
Presbyterian scored twice in the last 15 minutes of the game – goals by Jamie Beamish and Jena Ready – but the Panthers scored the last three to make it a 17-4 final.
HPU junior Anna Wallingford made the start in the cage, earning her seventh win of the year with two saves. Freshman goalie Julia Burns played the last 18:21 of the game. Presbyterian’s Samantha Arey got the start and made four saves in 10:02 before Susan England came in and played the final 49:58, making five saves. Arey took the loss.
High Point won 19 of the 23 draws in the game and outshot Presbyterian 35-9. High Point had 15 caused turnovers led by sophomore defender Megan Weisman, who had three along with four ground balls and two draw controls.
The Panthers hit the road next week, playing No. 6 Duke on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Durham, N.C. High Point makes a northern swing over the weekend with a game at Howard on Friday and at Detroit on Sunday.