HPU Women’s Lacrosse Opens Big South Play With 21-3 Win Over Presbyterian

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University women’s lacrosse team opened up Big South Conference play with a 21-3 win over Presbyterian College on Thursday night at Vert Stadium. Redshirt-sophomore Emilie Pugliese and junior Kendyl Gardner each scored four goals for HPU while senior Mackenzie Carroll notched four points on a goal and three assists.

“We are really excited about the contributions that some of the younger girls brought to the table,” said HPU head coach Lyndsey Boswell. “Going into the game we were focused on limiting turnovers and creating a lot of possessions for our team, which I thought we did a very good job. We also did a good job of being aggressive and winning the 50-50 balls.

The Panthers had 13 different goal scorers led by Pugliese and Gardner who both tallied a hat trick in the first half. Sophomore Natalie Devine and freshman Samantha Brown each recorded a pair of goals for HPU.

HPU improves to 5-5 overall and moves to the top spot in the Big South with a 1-0 record. Presbyterian falls to 4-6 on the year and 0-1 in the league standings.

High Point broke the game open early scoring the first six goals less than 10 minutes into the contest. SeniorAlec Perry started the scoring run after causing a turnover by PC’s goalie, which Perry then picked up and sent into the net.

Pugliese scored her first of the day with 15:55 remaining to put HPU up 6-0 before PC broke the Panthers’ streak with its only goal of the first half with 12:13 remaining. HPU responded nearly a minute later with a goal by seniorSara Kuhlman, which sparked another six goal run including two more by Pugliese and three by Gardner.

Sophomore Allie Foard found Gardner for a second time with an assist for Gardner’s fourth goal to open the second half. HPU added three more including sophomore Natalie Devine’s first of the season before the Blue Hose notched a goal to bring the score to 16-2.

Devine beat the PC goalkeeper once again off another assist from Carroll to spark a four goal run that pushed High Point’s lead to 20-2 with 7:10 remaining. Brown tallied two of the scores, which were her first two collegiate goals.

The Blue Hose responded with their third and final goal before Pugliese finished off the scoring with her fourth of the night to cap off the 21-3 victory.

HPU outshot Presbyterian 32-3 and picked up 23 ground balls to PC’s nine. The Panthers also won 19 draw controls while limiting PC to just seven on the night.

High Points hits the road for its next game on Sunday, April 6 at Coastal Carolina. CCU is also 1-0 in Big South play after defeating Campbell in the only other conference game thus far this year. The Panthers topped the Chanticleers 17-4 in the teams first ever meeting last season with Kuhlman notching five points on four goals and an assist. Game time is set for 2 p.m on Sunday.