BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. – Pitching a total first-half shutout for the first time in school history en route to perhaps their greatest-ever defensive performance within a Big South setting, the Presbyterian College lacrosse team soared past Gardner-Webb on Saturday with a 12-4 road victory, their first league win of 2024.

Ending the divisional duel at plus-10 in draws and plus-12 in shot attempts, the Blue Hose didn't let a single free-position opportunity lead to a goal for the second match in a row, propelled to the W behind a career-best six scores by senior Kylie Sullivan.

Head coach Eric Clakeley's unit enjoyed a plethora of personal-high's as they found a 9-0 advantage over the first two periods, keeping the Runnin' Bulldogs off the board for the first 35 minutes and nine seconds of play.

Drawing comparisons to a similar defensive gem in an 11-6 win over Central Connecticut back in March, PC put a six-game losing skid against Gardner-Webb to rest in emphatic fashion, buoyed by a 52-minute stint from keeper Naomi Lauderbaugh.

Making a positive step toward a late-season push to the Big South Tournament, Presbyterian returns home for their next two encounters in league territory. They'll tangle with Radford at Bailey Memorial Stadium in exactly one week, an opponent whom they firmly defeated last spring (14-5) in Virginia.

 
NOTABLES
 
- Sullivan's massive afternoon puts her at 18 goals for the year (a number that currently sits second on the roster), loading up five of them within the first 23 minutes.

- Beating out her previous best of four versus Xavier in the early stages of 2023, the senior accounted for PC's highest single-game output of any player since the season's start back in February.

- Just one year behind Sullivan, junior Willow Hammond entered the 100-point club as her crew thrashed the Runnin' Bulldogs, approaching the bout with 99 and quickly hitting triple digits by scoring the game's first goal with only 1:42 passed.

- Hammond closed the blowout with three goals and an additional assist, joined in the scoring column by Abby Edmisten, Alyssa Perez, and Kaylie Rittmueller.

- Nearly stealing the show from all of PC's offensive goodness, freshman Emma Claire Mills (already a two-time Big South weekly-award winner) broke the Blue Hose single-game record by winning 10 draw controls on Saturday.

- Four other Scotsmen had grabbed nine draws in games that date all the way back to 2011, although Mills topped them all by winning four in the final frame to set a new blue and garnet benchmark.

- The only other meeting in the program's Division I history where Presby allowed fewer than four scores came in April 2010 when Liberty was only able to achieve three. Thus, it's the lowest that any Big South opponent – or any other institution, for that matter – has managed against PC in the five-year Clakeley era.

 
HOW IT HAPPENED
 
- Presbyterian continually heightened pressure on the defensive end of the field, as Lauderbaugh collected six saves while the starting back line of Juliana San Lucas, Avery West, Miranda Castilla, and Olivia Ballard were relentless.

- West was particularly gnarly in that domain, registering three caused takeaways and three other ground balls.

- Not only did Sullivan cash-in six times to avenge last year's narrow loss to the Runnin' Bulldogs, but she did so with zero missed swings, the best ratio with at least six scores for any PC player since Edmisten went nine-for-eleven versus Landers in 2021.

- Four different Presbyterian performers hit the back of the net at least once before Gardner-Webb could get off the mat, as coach Clakeley's squad found themselves ahead 10-0 before seeing the first tidbit of resistance.

- Brooke Chandler provided the assist on Sullivan's sixth and final connection with 10:23 to go, aiding the Blue Hose to their fourth Big South triumph over the past 12 months.

- PC racked up five goals in the opening stanza while adding four more to their already-comfortable cushion before the break, departing Spangler Stadium with a major momentum-booster.

 
UP NEXT
 
- Radford will come into Clinton next weekend for a 2:00 PM start at Bailey Memorial, with the last lock-up between the two heavily tilting in PC's favor via a nine-goal differential in the Commonwealth State.

- That April Fool's Day W over the Highlanders was the school's second all-time win in the series, aiming for another as the action streams live on ESPN+.

- Radford found an 11-8 thriller opposite Winthrop two weeks ago, although since dropping two in a row to Wofford and High Point. They were bested 20-10 at the Panthers' hands on Saturday, now at 4-9 overall.