Women’s Lacrosse Holds Off Brevard In Season-Opener, Win Cline’s Quaker Coaching Debut
Balanced offense lifts Guilford despite soppy conditions
from Bryce Johnson, Director of Athletic Communications at Guilford College
GREENSBORO, N.C. – It was a wet and wild season debut for the Guilford College women’s lacrosse team (1-0, 0-0 ODAC), but they braved a delayed start, the elements, and Brevard College (0-1, 0-0 USA South), 9-7, to pick up the victory in Taylor Klein’s Quaker coaching debut at Appenzeller Field at the Armfield Athletic Center on Saturday afternoon.
GC, who was short-handed on this day, kept control of the game by holding a 12-7 edge on the draw and going 20-of-25 on clears against 22-33 for the Tornados. The shots and shots on goal finished fairly even but were in favor of the home team at 31-28 and 20-17, but it was Guilford’s discipline that was the biggest differentiator as they were tagged with just one foul and two green cards as a team against 13 fouls and eight cards, including three yellows, on the guests. The Quakers took advantage of their resulting free-positions chances, with their two free-position tallies standing as the difference.
Kennedy Gates (Cornelius, N.C.) got the start in goal for her collegiate debut and went all 60 minutes for GC. Facing 28 shots with 17 on frame, Gates made ten saves against seven goals permitted to get the win and improve to 1-0. Kyla Smith-Fondall got the start in net for BC and allowed nine goals against 11 saves on the 30 shots she faced, 20 on target while also snaring a game-high seven ground balls. She took the loss to fall to 0-1.
It was another freshman that stole the show offensively as Carm DeFeo (Shelton, Conn.) tallied a hat trick in her college debut. Attempting ten shots on the day to lead all players, she was also tied for a team-high with three draw controls and paced the Quakers in ground balls and caused turnovers with four and five respectively. Emma Garland (Hampstead, N.C.) began her second season with a pair of goals, a trio of draw controls, and four ground balls. Riley Gravley (Greensboro, N.C.) had a goal and an assist and also controlled a trio of draw controls for the Quakers.
All seven Tornado goals came from three different sources. Arianna Casertano led all players in points by notching three goals and two assists. On top of her game-high four draw controls, Emily Denaga had a pair of goals and a helper and Xan Hill had a duo of tallies as well. Madi Norris paced all field players with six ground balls.
Delayed for over 20 minutes due to the preceding men’s lacrosse game going to triple-overtime, the opening stanza of play was really a feeling out period for the two teams and a bunch of turnovers slowed the early action before DeFeo was able to turn the corner and rip a shot into the bottom left for her first collegiate goal just inside the nine-minute mark. Brevard would counter with the next three tallies with two Casertano goals bookending a Hill tally over a three-and-a-half-minute span starting at the 6:43 mark. However, with 2:23 left, Gravely spun off a pair of BC defenders and found paydirt to halt the skid and seize momentum at the end of one.
The Guilford defense would lock down in the second frame, permitting just six shots while forcing nine Tornado turnovers and their offense took advantage, seizing a lead they would never relinquish. Just inside of eight minutes, Gravley found Kylie Wood (Greensboro, N.C.) who caught, spun, and went top-shelf to level the tallies. Less than two minutes later, Sammy Keene (Greensboro, N.C.) took advantage of the second of her two free-position chances, going bottom-left for what ended up as the game-winner as GC entered the half with a 4-3 edge.
The third quarter would feature as much scoring as the other three frames combined as the offenses asserted their will. It got off to a fast start when Karly Smith (Greensboro, N.C.) took a Wood feed for her first collegiate goal less than 45 seconds in before Casertano countered exactly five minutes into the period. The Quakers finally got a run to get some breathing room beginning at the 7:20 mark. Garland drove in and put a little swim move on the defender before going top-left to open the rally before DeFeo went short-side on a free-position look a minute later. Garland’s second, this time on a cut off a Gravely feed, made the score 8-4 before Denaga had an answer although DeFeo’s third tally and Hill’s second in a man-down situation made the score 9-6 entering the fourth.
Whether it be the conditions, early-season execution, or the fatigue resulting from playing 45 minutes of straight 12-on-12 lacrosse, the fourth quarter got sloppy with the adversaries combining for seven failed clears, and 19 turnovers against just ten shot attempts. Denaga scored her second with 9:18 remaining to make things interesting, but BC would never get back within a single score as the game finished at 9-7.
Guilford will open Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) play next, venturing to play No. 6 nationally ranked Washington & Lee on Tuesday, February 18th at 6 PM.
#GoQuakes