NEW CASTLE, Del. - - After a tightly contested first half, the Wilmington University women's lacrosse team opened the second half with seven consecutive goals en route to a 20-7 rout over Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference foe Post on Saturday afternoon at the Kirkwood Soccer Complex.
Wilmington (8-4, 5-3 CACC) made it two wins in a row and three in its last four games overall to remain in third place in the CACC. The loss was Post's 10th straight and dropped to 1-11 overall, 0-9 in the CACC.
After a slow first half, the Wildcats broke out for 13 second half goals while holding the Eagles to only two late game opportunities. The Wildcats scored the final three goals of the first half to take a 7-5 lead into the halftime break, and scored the first seven goals of the second half before allowing Post to get on the board with 14:18 remaining in regulation.
The Wildcats opened the game on a 3-0 run as Jaclyn Hall, Jess Graybeal and Ashley Kroll all scored in the first eight minutes of the game. After the teams traded goals and the score at 4-1 in favor of the home team, the Eagles went on a 4-0 run of their own to take their only lead of the game at 5-4. Post's Morgan Kanavy scored three straight goals during the streak and the Eagles took the lead on a Mallorie Michalak goal with 11:15 remaining in the first half.
That is when Wilmington started it 10-0 run in the final 8:22 of the opening half and the first 15:30 of the second stanza. During the 10-0 run, the Wildcats used seven different goal scorers while Liz Case, Kroll, and Molly Taylor all contributed two goals apiece to open up the lead.
Kroll, Meggan Apgar, Jess Stratton and Brittany Rhodes sprinted out to another mini 4-0 run late in the second half to bring the score to 18-6, as the four goals came over a four-minute span starting with Kroll's fourth goal of the game with 10:48 remaining in regulation.
Kroll led all Wildcat scorers with the four goals, while Wilmington used a barrage of different scorers in the game, totaling nine separate goal scorers to amass the 20 marks. Kroll also added two assists on the day for six points while Case tallies two goals and three assists for five points. Graybeal and Jaclyn Hall recorded hat tricks on the afternoon, as all three of Hall's goals came in the first half. Taylor, Stratton, and Apgar each accumulated two goals while Rhodes and Rebekah McCurry chipped in with one goal each.
The Wildcats controlled more draws that the Eagles, 15-14, and picked up almost double the amount of groundballs than the visitors, 30-16. They also forced the Eagles in 26 total turnovers for the game.
Kaitlyn Hall needed to make seven stops in goal for the Wildcats to improve to 7-4 overall in cage while Eagle's netminder Eryka Baez recorded 15 saves but fell to 0-2 with the loss.
Wilmington takes to the road this week before returning for its final home game of the season on Saturday. The Wildcats will travel to Philadelphia on Tuesday and Holy Family on Thursday before facing Dominican next Saturday for Senior Day at Kirkwood.
