AKRON, Ohio – Six different players found the back of the net for the Presbyterian College lacrosse squad on Tuesday night, carried to a 10-9 triumph over the Akron Zips behind a four-score opening frame and a defense that held the opposition to just three goals over the first and last periods put together. Thirteen free-position opportunities and a +12 shot differential allowed the Blue Hose to assemble their second W of the young schedule that came down to the waning moments.
Needing six-and-a-half minutes to open the game's scoring on the first of a team-high three strikes from senior
Abby Edmisten, PC never surrendered a lead that reached as high a margin as four on two separate occasions, holding onto a two-score halftime advantage and keeping the Zips at bay for a major confidence-booster.
In a contest pushed to an indoor venue due to inclement weather in the area, Presbyterian adjusted swimmingly to the change in setting by scoring at least twice in all four quarters on Tuesday, kicking off the team's two-game Ohio venture and overall four-game road sequence with a clutch performance a la the one-goal victory at Delaware State two weeks back.
NOTABLES
- Not only did Edmisten become the first Blue Hose player to hit double-digits in her personal goal count this semester (now with 12 in five appearances), but the fourth-year luminary achieved a landmark that only one other Presbyterian performer has found in the past: a career goal total of 100 and counting. Needing two to seal the deal, Edmisten took all of nine minutes to get it done by producing PC's first pair of goals in the early going, both off of a free position look.
- In fact, exactly half of the successful attempts from a Blue Hose stick came in a similar FPS fray, with the
Willow Hammond/
Tayler Hofmeister/
Kylie Sullivan trio responsible for the other three cash-ins of Akron defensive fouls/violations.
- Sullivan and Hammond joined Edmisten as fellow PC reps to finish with more than one goal, part of an offensive unit that gathered 25 on-target tries and 32 ground ball recoveries. The blue and white won 10 draw control instances on their way to the stringent win, gaining one save in each period from freshman keeper
Lilly Phillips who grabbed her second personal W.
- Head coach
Eric Clakeley's defense stayed the aggressor even in possession of the lead, turning the Zips over 13 times, three from the disruption of rookie
Avery West and a couple other interventions by
Kendall Goldfarb. Altogether, the Blue Hose found six different players with three ground balls or higher, led by Phillips' six.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The sophomore tandem of
NaQuia Hall and
Mickey Paredes picked up where Edmisten left off by sending in two unanswered strikes over the 1
st period's final four minutes, putting PC ahead by a trio in the process. Hammond's unassisted rifle at the 10:22 stamp of the next frame gifted the visitors their largest lead to that point at 5-1.
- Akron settled into a more back-and-forth rhythm as the nonconference meeting settled into the 2
nd, translating to a 3-2 edge in their favor that was captured on a 1:28 score to bring the deficit to 6-4 at intermission. This sequence set the stage for a chaotic 3
rd stanza that ultimately kept the hole at a deuce when the dust settled from a four-goal arrangement that lasted barely three minutes.
- Both sides netted two swings each before there was time to blink as the pace rapidly rose out of the locker room exit, with Hofmeister's first goal of 2023 thrusting the advantage back to its highest point at 8-4. Akron countered with two strikes just 66 seconds apart from one another, forcing the game's tendencies to lower to a defensive lull for the rest of the quarter.
- Following the goal frenzy in the half's opening moments, neither side was able to find another score until 11 uninterrupted minutes grazed by, silenced with a woman-up opportunity from the Zips that nailed its crosshairs with 16 ticks to go in the 3
rd.
- Seemingly unable to put Akron to bed no matter the size of the offensive burst, PC never wavered and kept their composure while still ahead by one, bringing the advantage to 9-7 with 63 seconds elapsed in the 4
th and again back up to two with under four minutes remaining.
- Hammond and Edmisten delivered the goods for the Blue Hose when the pressure mounted the most, settling the rubber match of what was a 1-1 series over the past three years. Edmisten's goal trifecta stands as the 26
th time in her PC tenure with a single-game performance of more than one score, doing so for the fourth consecutive contest (one off a career-long five-game streak of such efforts in 2021).
- The senior joins Catherine Ellis (2011-14) as the only two Presbyterian members to hit the century mark in the goal department, earning 123 total points since 2020.
UP NEXT
- Solidifying a clutch gene through the 2023 slate's first month, coach Clakeley's group stays in the Buckeye State for another encounter against a MAC foe, this one less than 30 minutes away from the site of Tuesday's win. They'll battle Kent State on Thursday afternoon, aiming for a 1:00 p.m. opening whistle.
- The Golden Flashes will roll into the mid-week duel at 3-4 overall, amassing at minimum 15 goals in all of their winning results. However, KSU will host the Blue Hose in a bit of a sour mood following a 12-9 setback against St. Francis (Pa.) last Friday. The incoming bout will register as the third straight season of competition between the two, as PC hopes for redemption from a 15-12 setback in Clinton last spring.
