HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University women’s lacrosse team used a second half surge to pick up its second Big South win in as many games with a 13-5 win on Sunday afternoon at Coastal Carolina. Senior Mackenzie Carroll led the Panthers with seven points on three goals and four assists.
“I’m proud of Mackenzie for the way she led the offense and really took control,” said HPU head coach Lyndsey Boswell. “I thought she did a great job of keeping things composed even when we didn’t have the momentum.Emily Meier stood out as well by creating and earning us more possessions through her scrappy play. I also thought we had some good contributions off the bench especially from Emilie Pugliese and Leah Pace who both did a wonderful job.”
HPU scored nine goals in the second half including two by Carroll to pull away from the Chanticleers. The Panthers tallied the first four goals of the second half to pull ahead 8-3 after holding a one goal lead at half.
The win moves High Point to 6-5 overall and 2-0 in league play. Coastal Carolina drops to 3-9 and 1-2 in the Big South.
High Point struck first just 26 seconds into the game when Meier found senior Alec Perry with a pass that she sent into the net to put HPU up 1-0. Following a CCU counter, Meier notched her second assist of the day on a pass to Carroll. The goal spark a three unanswered streak that included two assists by Carroll to put HPU up 4-1 before CCU scored the last two goals of the half to pull within one, 4-3, heading into half.
Following the break, Carroll tallied her third assist on a pass to redshirt-junior Emily Pugliese to kick start a four unanswered goal streak for the Panthers that included a scores from Meier, senior Alec Perry, and Carroll. After a CCU goal that brought the score to 8-4, Meier scored for a second time before sophomore Leah Pace notched her first. Carroll added her third to complete her hat trick and put HPU up 11-4.
Emily Meier completed her hat trick with three minutes left in the contest to push the lead to 12-5 before Carroll capped the scoring by finding Pugliese for a second time for a goal as she fell down in front of the goal.
Carroll has now tallied seven assists in the Panthers two Big South Conference matchups and leads the team with 33 points on 17 goals and a team-high 16 assists. Pugliese now has six goals in HPU’s first two conference battles.
Seniors Patricia Bigelow and Jasmine Jordan paced the HPU defense with five ground balls a piece. The two also combined to cause three turnovers and Jordan won a draw control while also scoring a goal.
Junior Julia Burns played the entire game in goal to pick up the win for High Point. Burns made eight saves and lowered her league-leading goals-against average to 8.31.
The Panthers outshot the Chanticleers 26-18 in the game and picked up 26 ground balls to CCU’s 22. HPU went 15-of-16 on clear attempts while limiting Coastal to 11-of-15 on clears.
High Point continues Big South play on the road Friday, April 11 at Liberty at 4 p.m. The Panthers are 3-0 all-time against the Flames including a 15-8 win last season in High Point, N.C.