Opening Draw: After making history on Friday night by getting their first ever NCAA Tournament win, the Tiger women's lacrosse looks to avenge one of its three losses on Sunday, May 15. The Tigers host the seventh seeded Penn Quakers in NCAA Tournament second round action. Opening draw is set for 12 p.m. from Unitas Stadium. Towson Sports Network's
Ben Rosenbaum will have the call of the game starting at 11:45 a.m. Links to live stats and the video feed can be found in this article and on the schedule page of TowsonTigers.com. Fans can also follow the Tigers on Twitter (
@Towson_WLAX) for updates.
Updating the Tigers: The Tigers who were making their eighth appearance in the NCAA Tournament, earned their first ever win with a 16-5 win over Old Dominion. Ten Tigers scored in the game and that group was led by sophomore midfielder
Emily Gillingham and freshman midfielder
Natalie Sulmonte who had three goals each. Sophomore midfielder
Kaitlyn Montalbano powers the Tiger offense with 35 goals and 22 assists for 57 points. Sulmonte, Gillingham and junior midfielder
Samantha Brookhart have all registered at least 30 points this season. Sulmonte has 30 goals and five assists while Gillingham has contributed 25 goals and nine assists. Brookhart is currently second on the team with 21 assists and has also added nine goals. Ten Tigers have contributed 10 or more ground balls this season and that group is led by redshirt senior
Nadia Podo who has 34. Sophomore defender
Tianna Wallpher leads the team with 26 caused turnovers. Three Tigers have 40 or more draw controls and that group is led by Sulmonte with 47. Freshman
Angie Benson carries a 6.67 goals against average and a .449 save percentage into this game.
Scouting Penn: The seventh seeded Quakers advanced to the second round with a 17-7 win over Wagner on Friday afternoon.
Nina Corcoran led the Quakers with seven points in the game (3g, 4a).
Catherine Dickinson and
Alex Condon had four goals each. Corcoran leads the Quakers on the season with a program-record 82 points (26g, 56a). Condon has scored a team-high 41 goals and added three assists for 44 points.
Caroline Cummings has pulled down a team-best 44 draw controls while
Katie Cromie leads the way with 32 ground balls.
Megan Kelly leads the team with 25 caused turnovers.
Britt Brown enters the game with a 7.33 goals against average and a .489 save percentage.
Towson-Penn Series History: Sunday's game will be the second meeting this season and fifth overall between the Tigers and Penn. The Quakers have won each of the previous match-ups including a 7-4 victory in March. The Tigers jumped out to a 4-0 lead but were unable to find the back of the net in the second half.
Nina Corcoran had a goal and three assists for the Quakers while
Angie Benson made a career-high nine saves in goal.
The Big 3-0: Freshman midfielder
Natalie Sulmonte scored her 30th goal of the season on Friday night against Old Dominion. She is the first Tiger freshman to score 30 or more goals in her rookie campaign since
Hillary Fratzke had 30 goals during the 2006 season.
Making History: In addition to winning the program's first NCAA Tournament game on Friday night, the Tigers managed to rewrite much of the program's NCAA Tournament record book. The 16 goals scored were the most by a Tiger squad in an NCAA Tournament game. The Tigers scored eight goals in each half, tying the mark for goals in a half. The Tigers set the school record for assists (seven), caused turnovers (12) and shots (36) in an NCAA Tournament game. Junior midfielder
Samantha Brookhart set the school record for assists in an NCAA Tournament game with three. Freshman midfielder
Natalie Sulmonte tied the mark for draw controls (seven) while redshirt senior defender
Nadia Podo tied the record for caused turnovers (three).
Ground Ball Machine: Redshirt senior defender
Nadia Podo was a force on the defensive end for the Tigers against Old Dominion. Podo scooped up a career-high six ground balls against the Monarchs. It was the most ground balls by a Tiger since
Kelsea Donnelly had six against Loyola during the 2013 season.
Just the Way We Drew It Up: A pair of Tigers made their mark in the circle on Friday night against Old Dominion. Freshman
Natalie Sulmonte recorded a game and career-high seven draw controls against the Monarchs. It was the most draw controls by a Tiger since
Andi Raymond and
Breanna Hamm each had seven last season. In addition, Hamm pulled down four draw controls against Old Dominion. That raised her season total to 46 and her career total to 169. Hamm moved past Becky Trumbo and into second place on the career draw controls list at Towson.
I'll Take That: Towson recorded 12 caused turnovers against Old Dominion on Friday night.
Nadia Podo led that group with three caused turnovers against the Monarchs. Fellow defenders
Kelly McQuilkin and
Emily Roth each added two caused turnovers in that game. Towson improved to 6-1 this season when it has at least 10 caused turnovers in a game. The Tigers recorded a season-high 15 caused turnovers against UConn. That was the most caused turnovers by a Tiger squad under head coach
Sonia LaMonica and the most caused turnovers by a Tiger team since the 2010 Tigers had 18 caused turnovers against Stanford. The Tigers are 24-4 all-time under LaMonica when they post 10 or more caused turnovers in a game.
What's Next? The winner of Sunday's game advances to face the winner of the Florida/Penn State game next weekend in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament.