No. 19 Elon Falls On The Road to No. 14 Towson in CAA WLAX Action

TOWSON, Md. – No. 19 Elon University women’s lacrosse dropped a 19-7 contest Sunday afternoon, April 9, on the road to No. 14 Towson in CAA action at Johnny Unitas Stadium.

FINAL STATS

The loss sends Elon to 8-5 on the season and 0-2 in conference play. Towson is now 9-4 on the season and 2-1 in CAA action after dropping its conference opener last weekend to James Madison.

Melissa Birdsell and Kelsey Dupere each scored twice Sunday to lead the Phoenix. Shelby Scanlin added a goal and an assist in the contest for two points to go with a team-high three draw controls while Stephanie Asher and Jacie Cooper both scored once to round out Elon’s offensive attack. Alexis Zadjura led the Phoenix with three ground balls and had two draw controls. Abby Godfrey also finished with three draw controls on the afternoon.

Preseason CAA Player of the Year Kaitlyn Montalbano notched a game-high five goals and added an assist for six points. She also finished with two ground balls in the win. Natalie Sulmonte scored four times and added an assist while grabbing a game-high six draw controls to improve her season total to 56. Carly Tellekamp notched four goals and Emily Gillingham added three.

The Rundown
Earning her first-career start, Birdsell made good in the opening two minutes by getting Elon on the board first with her fifth goal of the season. Though the Tigers responded with Montalbano and Gillingham combined to score the next three goals, Dupere scored twice right in front of the cage less than three minutes apart to knot things up a 3-3 with 17:02 to go in the opening half.

Out of an Elon timeout, Towson forced a turnover and Gillingham converted the first of three Tiger goals in a row to put Towson up 6-3 with 11:39 to play in the half. Elon did cut the lead back to two with Asher and Scanlin sandwiching a seventh Tiger goal to trail by two with two minutes to play, but two late goals extended the lead to four at the break.

After halftime, Towson turned its quick 2-0 run to end the first half into a 5-0 stretch to go up 12-5 in the opening three minutes. Cooper ended the run with a free position goal to cut the Tigers’ lead to 12-6 with 26:08 to go, but the Tigers again went on a run, this time a seven-goal run, to earn the win.

Notes
– With one point, Stephanie Asher is now six points away from tying her single-season record of 54. She is also now three goals away from tying her single season program record of 44.
– With two caused turnovers, Rachel Ramirez has tied her program record of 24 in a single season. She also grabbed 24 as a freshman in 2014.
– Elon has now lost three games in a row for the first time since the 2015 season, when it opened CAA play with losses to Towson, Delaware and James Madison.

Up Next
The Phoenix will return home to start a three-game homestand. It will start on Friday, April 14, at 6 p.m. when the Phoenix welcomes Drexel to Rudd Field before hosting Delaware on Sunday, April 16. The final game of the homestand will be played Sunday, April 23, when Elon hosts Hofstra for Senior Day on Lax Sports Network.