• Senior Emily Meier posted career highs in points (7) and assists (4)
• Senior Allie Foard notched a season-high five goals and became the ninth player in HPU history to reach 100 career points
• HPU held Coastal scoreless over the final 14:47 of action
HIGH POINT, N.C. – Behind supreme performances from senior captains Emily Meier and Allie Foard, the High Point University women’s lacrosse team opened Big South play with a 16-8 victory over Coastal Carolina Saturday afternoon inside Vert Stadium.
Foard and Meier combined for 17 points and helped High Point (5-4, 1-0) jump out to a 7-0 lead in the game. Coastal Carolina (4-4, 0-1) moved all the way back within two (8-6), but the Panthers scored the final five goals of the game to seal the victory.
“I’m excited to start league play strong with a win,” head coach Lyndsey Boswell said. “Coastal is a very good team so we knew we had our work cut out for us. We executed our game plan well. We put a lot of pressure on our captains to lead this week coming off a loss to Elon. Clearly with the performances from Emily and Allie, they responded and really helped us win today.”
Meier posted career highs in points (7) and assists (4) to pace the Panther offense, eclipsing her previous personal best point total (5) by two.
Foard notched a season-best five goals and added an assist while also picking up three ground balls. With her second goal, Foard became the ninth player in program history to reach 100 career points.
“Allie has been a huge part of our success over the past four years,” Boswell said. “I’m really proud of her performance today, but I’m always proud of her with the way that she works and leads our offense.”
Against the Chanticleers, HPU held strong advantages in shots (32-22) and ground balls (30-21) while causing 15 turnovers in the game.
The High Point defense forced a Coastal team that entered the game 18th in the nation in fewest turnovers/game (12.6) into 18 miscues on the day. In a solid team effort defensively, five Panthers posted two caused turnovers while freshman goalie Molly Andrews played well, making eight saves and allowed just eight goals in 57:29 of action.
In addition to the performances from Meier and Foard, freshman Sam Herman tied a career best with four draw controls while picking up four ground balls and tallying a pair of goals. Senior Leah Pace chipped in a pair of assists, while fellow senior Kristina Renner grabbed three draw controls and scored a pair of goals on the day.
Brooke Stevens continued her solid sophomore campaign with two goals, including the first free position score of her career.
HPU rocketed out of the gate against the Chanticleers with seven straight goals over the first 20 minutes of the game. The Meier-Foard connection was cookin’ early, with the duo providing a goal/assist combo on back-to-back scores midway through the half.
Coastal responded with a 4-0 run to cut the HPU lead to three (7-4) with 4:41 to go in the half, but Herman notched a goal two minutes later to put the Panthers back up four (8-4). The Chanticleers posted the final two goals of the half, including a well designed score with just one second on the clock, to trail by two (8-6) at the break.
HPU padded its lead back to four (10-6) with two scores by Renner to open the second half. Coastal moved within three (11-8) with 14:47 to go in the game, but from there, HPU shut out the Chanticleers over the final portion of the second half.
The 5-0 run included two goals by Foard and the first career score by freshman Valerie Pelling.
With the victory, High Point improves to 3-0 all time in Big South openers.
HPU now hits the road for a pair of league games over the next week. The Panthers play at Campbell (5-5, 1-0) Wednesday at 7 p.m. and travel to Clinton, S.C., for a matchup with Presbyterian College (2-7, 0-1) Saturday at 2 p.m.