• Sophomore Erica Perrotta tallied a career-best seven points (5g, 2a)
• Allie Foard (4g) and Emily Meier (1g, 3a) each registered four points
• The win improves HPU to 4-2 on the road this season
FARMVILLE, Va. – Behind a career-best effort from sophomore Erica Perrotta and excellent defensive play, the High Point University women’s lacrosse team (11-4, 7-0) earned a 13-7 road win at Longwood (7-9, 3-4) on Wednesday at the LWU Athletics Complex.
Perrotta tallied a career-best seven points on five goals and two assists while registering two caused turnovers in an outstanding all-around effort for the Roseland, N.J., product.
On the defensive side, HPU limited the nation’s No. 1-2 scoring punch – Katie McHugh and Sarah Butler – to just six total points in the game. The duo entered the contest averaging a combined 12 points per contest.
Freshman goalie Molly Andrews led the charge with eight saves while allowing just seven goals against the nation’s No. 7 ranked offense (21.20 points/game). HPU’s close defense and midfield also stepped up defensively, racking up caused turnovers on 13 of Longwood’s 25 miscues on the night.
“Our defense did a great job as a unit, not only shutting down their key players, but also creating some possessions for us on offense which we needed tonight,” head coach Lyndsey Boswell “Speed is our strength and we were able to use that to give us momentum in transition. Erica executed very well for us on offense and gave our midfield and attack huge amounts of energy with her play. We have some things to work on offensively now heading into Sunday’s game at Winthrop.”
HPU held sizable advantages in shots (33-19) and ground balls (26-17) in the contest and executed 17-of-18 clears on the night.
In addition to Perrotta’s outstanding game, senior Allie Foard tallied four goals on the night while fellow senior Emily Meier posted four points on a goal and three assists.
Senior Kristina Renner grabbed a team-high four draw controls and caused a career best four turnovers while also tallying a goal in the contest. Christina Del Sesto added three caused turnovers in an excellent defensive effort by the junior captain.
The Lancers posted the first two goals of the game, before a beautiful look from Meier fed Foard for a goal at the 22:39 mark. Renner found Perrotta on the break minutes later to tie it up at 2-2. Then, Perrotta put together one of her patented self clears that led to a goal in transition and a 3-2 Panther lead with 11:49 to go in the period.
Renner added a goal to increase the lead to 4-2, but Longwood broke the 4-0 run and a 17-minute scoreless drought with a goal at the 6:33 mark. Foard put the Panthers back up two (5-3) just 20 seconds later, but Longwood again moved within one (5-4) with 3:54 to play.
But HPU put the final goal of the half on the board, as Perrotta generated a possession with a caused turnover, then raced up the field and finished a goal off a feed from Meier with just two seconds left. The score gave the Panthers a 6-4 advantage at the break.
The Panthers came out firing in the second half, posting a pair of goals over the first three minutes of the stanza. Foard notched a goal, then Perrotta won a draw and took it the length of the field to extend the HPU edge to four (8-4).
The Lancers responded with a pair of scores to move back within two at 8-6, but the Panthers rallied with a crucial 3-0 run over the next seven minutes to push the lead to five (16-11) with 14:12 to go. The spurt included goals from Meier, sophomore Brooke Stevens and Perrotta.
Perrotta tallied her seventh point on a goal from Foard to push the run to 4-0 and lead to 12-6 with 6:05 to play. Sophomore Erin Ilchuk tallied HPU’s final goal with less than three minutes to play.
With the victory, HPU improves to 4-2 on the road this season, including a 3-0 mark in league games.
The Wednesday victory now sets up a big contest Sunday for the Big South Conference. HPU (7-0) and Winthrop (7-0) will clash in Rock Hill, S.C., to determine the league’s regular season champion and No. 1 seed for the upcoming conference tournament. First draw on Sunday between the Panthers and Eagles is set for 1 p.m.