'Cats Take Perfect Record into Thursday's Game vs. W&M

Thursday, March 14

Davidson, N.C.

6:30 p.m.

Davidson College Athletics

William & Mary

Photo by: Jeff Sochko/DavidsonPhotos.com

'Cats Take Perfect Record into Thursday's Game vs. W&M

3/13/2019 11:02:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse

Gavin McFarlin - Associate SID

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DAVIDSON, N.C. — The Davidson women's lacrosse team, off to its best start in program history, looks to continue the hot start when it hosts William & Mary Thursday night under the lights at Richardson Stadium.

The Opening Draw Control...
Davidson (6-0, 0-0 A-10) will play William & Mary (3-3, 0-0 CAA) Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. as it looks to win its fourth straight home game and seventh overall to open the 2019 season.

The All-Time Series/Last Meeting vs. William & Mary ...
The series vs. the Tribe is seven games old dating back to 2000 with the 'Cats trailing 6-1. The two teams last met a year ago in Williamsburg, Va., where W&M pulled out a 12-9 decision. Twice the Wildcats got within two goals in the second half at 9-7 and 11-9, only to see the Tribe counter each time, including the final goal with 8:16 left. Davidson was held to just one more shot attempt in the closing eight minutes. For the third straight game, Blee matched her career high with three goals, while Molinari had a goal and two assists to pace the offense.

Quick Hits
Record Watch...
A few Wildcats are slowly climbing the record books. Sarah Kopp is currently ranked in the top-10 in draw controls with 154, good for second-most on the career list. Her 43 caused turnovers are six away from reaching the top-10. Sophia Sgroi is also in the top-10 in draw controls, sitting with 94 for 10th place. Junior Shayne Antolini and sophomore Olivia Carey are making their mark in the assist category, with Antolini sitting at 52 for 5th place, while Carey has 34 and needs three to move into the top-10 all-time.

Weekly Awards...
Feb. 11: Junior Delaney Guhman claimed her first Atlantic 10 women's lacrosse weekly award when she was named the league's defensive player of the week for games played from Feb. 4-10. Guhman helped Davidson open its 2019 season with a 12-4 win on the road at Winthrop with an impressive showing between the pipes. She earned her first collegiate victory by allowing just four goals, only one of them coming in the second half, while picking up six saves for a .600 save percentage. In addition, the Greensboro, N.C., native scooped up a couple groundballs.

Feb. 18: Freshman Braeden Dial claimed Davidson's second straight weekly award when she was named the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week for women's lacrosse for games played from Feb. 11-17. The freshman from New Canaan, Conn., had a stellar outing in her second collegiate game in helping Davidson take a 13-8 home win against Furman on Saturday, Feb. 16. Dial led the team with a season-high four goals on seven shots, while adding a groundball and a draw control. Dial scored the first and second goals of the game for the Wildcats in helping it race out to a 9-1 lead in the first half. She then ended the scoring on the day with the final goal. Dial put six of her seven shots on goal.

A-10 Preseason Poll...
Coming off a second straight trip to the semifinals in the Atlantic 10 Championship last year, Davidson was picked to finish fourth by the league's coaches in the 2019 preseason poll. The Wildcats received 63 points, one more than George Mason, and were picked behind Richmond (95, five first-place votes), UMass (94, five first-place votes) and Saint Joseph's (73). Richmond was picked to repeat as A-10 Champions after tying a program best with a 16-4 record and downing UMass 12-11 in an overtime thriller over the top-seeded Minutewomen, who had their nine-year championship streak snapped. UMass had also been picked to finish first in the preseason poll for the past 10 consecutive seasons until this year.

The 2019 Atlantic 10 Women's Lacrosse Championship will be held April 25-28 at George Mason Stadium. The Championship will feature a bracket of six teams.

Last Time Out... March 7
DAVIDSON — Davidson continued its program best start by netting its sixth-straight win to open the season with a 10-7 road victory last Thursday afternoon at Mercer. The Wildcats broke up a close game by scoring the first five goals of the second half after ending the first half with a pair of goals to take a 5-4 lead and then held on in the closing two minutes to improve to 6-0. Freshmen Gianna New and Emily Weld led the way offensively with a pair of hat tricks to tie a season high for each, with Weld adding an assist for a season-best four points. Olivia Carey had two goals and two assists for four points to tie her season high.

W&M — The William & Mary lacrosse team cruised to an impressive 13-5 victory at Longwood last Saturday afternoon. W&M owned a commanding 8-1 lead at halftime and extended the margin to as many as eight goals in the second half. Freshman Belle Martire led the Tribe with seven points (6 goals, 1 assist), as her six goals ties for the seventh-best single-game performances in school history. Junior Meredith Hughes also came up big with four goals on five shots, while freshman Lauren Russell added a pair of goals with three draw controls. Junior goalie Elsa Rall totaled seven saves and recorded a .583 save percentage.

Davidson Team/Individual Statistics ...
The 2019 Wildcat Statistics ... click here for full statistics

Opponent Team/Individual Statistics
The Tribe- 60 goals (10.0 per game), 15 assists, 147 shots (24.5 per game), 77 draw controls (12.8 per game), 73 caused turnovers (12.2 per game), 129 groundballs (21.5) and 14-39 free-position shots (.359)

Individual Statistics:
•Goals - Belle Martire (17), Meredith Hughes (10), Lauren Russell (8)
•Assists - Maddie Torgerson (4), Meredith Hughes (3), two tied (2)
•Points - Belle Martire (18), Meredith Hughes (13), Maddie Torgerson (10)
•Groundballs - Elsa Rall (15), Beth Kuyk (14), two tied (13)
•Caused Turnovers - Anne McElgunn (12), Beth Kuyk (10), Starr Howard (9)
•Draw Controls - Starr Howard (32), Maddie Torgerson (11), Lauren Russell (10)
•Saves - Elsa Rall (64), Claire Duchene (4)

Next Up ...
After Thursday's game, the Wildcats will head to No. 15 Duke for a Monday game at 4 p.m. It is the start of a busy week for the 'Cats, who will start Atlantic 10 play that weekend, March 22 & 24 vs. UMass and George Washington.