Opening Draw: The Towson University women's lacrosse team begins its NCAA Tournament run on Friday, May 12. The Tigers take on High Point, the Big South Champion, in College Park, Maryland. Opening draw from the Maryland Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex is set for 4 p.m. Links to the live stats and the video feed can be found on the schedule page of TowsonTigers.com. Towson Sports Network's Ben Rosenbaum will have audio coverage of the game starting at 3:45 p.m. Fans can also follow the Tigers on Twitter (@Towson_WLAX) for updates.

Updating the Tigers: Towson will be looking to bounce back from a heartbreaking 10-9 overtime loss to Elon in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) semifinals last Friday. Senior attacker Samantha Brookhart led the Tigers with a goal and five assists for six points, while sophomore Angie Benson made 12 saves in goal. Brookhart leads a balanced offensive attack for the Tigers with a team-high 52 assists and 69 points. Sophomore attacker Natalie Sulmonte has contributed 43 goals and 19 assists (62 points), while also pulling down a team-best 84 draw controls. Fellow sophomore attacker Carly Tellekamp has posted a team-high 51 goals and adds eight assists (59 points). Junior defender Tianna Wallpher has scooped up a team-high 46 ground balls, while freshman defender Olivia Conti has a team-high 46 caused turnovers. Benson will carry an 8.74 goals against average and a .500 save percentage into Friday's action.

Scouting High Point: The Panthers are coming off a 19-5 win over Campbell in the Big South Championship game Sunday. Darla Poulin (2g, 4a) and Emory Gaeng (5g, 1a) led the Panthers with six points each in that contest. High Point is led on the season by Samantha Brown, the Big South Offensive Player of the Year. Brown paces the Panthers with 57 goals and 22 assists (79 points). Poulin adds 48 goals and 22 assists (70 points). Ashley Britton has posted a team-high 60 draw controls while Erica Perrotta has 43 ground balls. Christina Del Sesto leads the defensive efforts with 30 caused turnovers. Jill Rall comes into the NCAA Tournament with a 7.94 goals against average and a .429 save percentage.

Towson-High Point Series History: Friday will mark the first ever meeting between the Tigers and Panthers in women's lacrosse. In fact, it will be the Tigers' first meeting against any of the Big South women's lacrosse teams. The only other team the Tigers faced for the first time ever this season was Notre Dame, and Towson claimed a 14-11 win over the Fighting Irish.

Let's Dance: Towson is making its ninth appearance in the NCAA Tournament and fifth in the last seven years under head coach Sonia LaMonica. Towson earned its second at-large bid to the tournament in program history (2010, 2017). The Tigers have advanced to the NCAA Tournament seven times as an automatic qualifier (2005, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016). The Tigers will be looking to win an NCAA Tournament game for the second straight year after getting the first tournament win in program history last season (16-5 win over Old Dominion in the first round).
 
Call Her Ms. Assist: Senior attacker Samantha Brookhart made history in the Tigers' CAA semifinal contest against Elon. Brookhart's third assist of the game gave her 50 for the season and 92 for her career. That broke the CAA single-season assists mark and the Towson career assists record. Brookhart has now tied the Towson single-game mark while setting the single-season and career assists records at Towson, in addition to the CAA single-season mark. She has 13 multi-assists games this season and enters the NCAA Tournament ranked among the top five in the nation for assists and assists per game.
 
Conti Caused That: CAA Defensive Player of the Year freshman, Olivia Conti, picked up another caused turnover against Elon in the semfinals. That gives her 46 caused turnovers during her rookie campaign. She needs just two more assists to break the Towson and CAA record for single-season caused turnovers. Conti currently ranks second in the CAA and among the top 10 in the nation for caused turnovers per game this season.
 
Nifty Fifty: Sophomore attacker Carly Tellekamp scored her 50th and 51st goals of the season against Elon in the CAA semifinals. Tellekamp is the first Tiger since Andi Raymond in 2014 to score at least 50 goals in a season. She is also the ninth player in program history to score at least 50 goals in a single-season. Tellekamp ranks eighth on the single-season goals scored list at Towson.
 
Piling Up the Goals: Towson has showcased an offense this season that score plenty of goals. The Tigers have scored in double-digits 13 times this season and have six games with 15 or more goals scored. Towson enters the NCAA Tournament with 239 goals. The Tigers need to score just four goals to break the school record for goals in a single-season (242 goals scored in 1984).
 
Up Next: The winner of the Towson/High Point game advances to face No. 1 Maryland on Sunday, May 14 at noon.