TOWSON, Md. - The Towson women's lacrosse team returns home to Unitas Stadium Friday night as it hosts a Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) contest against Hofstra beginning at 6 p.m. Ben Rosenbaum and former Tiger Samantha Brookhart will have the call live on the Towson Sports Network. Live stats will also be available at TowsonTigers.com.

#OwnYourRoar Highlights This Weekend

• At this weekend's home games, as part of the Towson University Student-Athlete Advisory Committee's (SAAC) #OwnYourRoar Campaign, various student-athletes will be tabling and helping to spread awareness for mental healthcare.
• Student-athletes from the women's lacrosse, men's lacrosse, and softball teams will wear the temporary tattoos on their forearms during the games. Also, fans will be able to get #OwnYourRoar promotional items from the table that will be at the game.
• The #Own Your Roar campaign is an awareness program for mental health that encourages students and student-athletes to #Own Your Roar and advocate for their own mental health. 

Game Storylines

• Towson is off to the second-best start to a season in school history. The team started 14-2 under head coach Sonia LaMonica in 2016 en route to the program's seventh CAA title.
• Senior Emily Gillingham has scored a goal in 22 consecutive games.
• Sophomore Olivia Conti was named CAA Defensive Player of the Week on Monday, earning her second honor this season and third overall. The Tigers have now had the conference's defensive player in each of the last four weeks and five of the last seven.
• Towson was ranked at No. 9 in the latest NCAA RPI rankings released on Tuesday.
• In four CAA games this season, Towson has outscored its opponents, 63-21. The team has scored at least 10 goals in each game while not allowing more than seven.

A Towson Win Would …

• Improve the Tigers' win streak to eight overall, seven-straight at home and five in-a-row in the CAA.
• Improve Towson's regular season home winning streak to 13. The team has not lost at home in the regular season since a 13-6 loss to No. 3 Florida on March 5, 2017.
• Improve the Tigers' record to 22-6 at home since 2016.
• Improve the career record of head coach Sonia LaMonica to 106-59 (.642) in nine seasons overall and 98-50 (.662) in eight seasons at Towson.
• Be the team's 24th in 39 all-time meetings against Hofstra.

Last Time Out

• Freshman Hannah Hobbes scored her first career goal while red-shirt freshman Rachel Florek made two saves to highlight the eight-ranked Tigers' 17-5 CAA road victory at William & Mary last Sunday.
• The newest members of the 100-goal club, junior Natalie Sulmonte and junior Carly Tellekamp combined for seven goals while sophomore Kiley Keating totaled seven saves.
• With her first career goal, Hobbes becomes the 14th different Tiger to score a goal this season.
• Towson scored 10 of its 17 goals on free position shots and had nine different players score a goal.
• The Tigers are now 12-1 when leading at the half this year.

Scouting Hofstra

• Hofstra went 1-1 last week with a 12-8 loss to Delaware and a 13-11 victory over Drexel. The Pride rallied from a 7-1 deficit against Drexel.
• Sophomore Alyssa Parrella, who led Hofstra in scoring last week with 10 points, has pushed her season totals to 65 points on 45 goals and 20 assists. All three are team-highs and she also has 43 draw controls.
• Sophomore Alexa Mattera leads the Pride with 56 draw controls and ranks second in scoring with 41 points and 36 goals.
• Sophomore Darcie Smith has posted 29 ground balls, 26 draw controls and 12 caused turnovers to lead Hofstra defensively.
• Maddie Fields has started all 14 games in goal and has totaled a 10.41 goals against average and 122 saves for a .467 saves percentage.

Towson-Hofstra Series History

• Friday will be the 39th all-time meeting all-time between the Tigers and Pride with Towson holding a 23-15 lead in the series.
• Hofstra upset the 13th-ranked Tigers a year ago at home, 17-15, on Apr. 16, 2017. Kaitlyn Montalbano had two goals and four assists to lead the Towson offense.
• Friday will mark the first meeting between the two teams at Unitas Stadium since April 12, 2015 when the Pride scored with 3:08 to play in second overtime to take an 8-7 victory.
• Current TSN analyst Samantha Brookhart scored three goals in that game to lead the Tigers offensively.
• The two teams have met in the CAA semifinals each of the last two seasons.

 Last Meeting: Hofstra 17, Towson 15 (April 16, 2017)

• Carly Tellekamp posted her second six-goal game of the season, but it was not enough as Hofstra upset No. 13 Towson at home, 17-15.
• The Pride outscored the Tigers in the second half, 10-4.
• Natalie Sulmonte had three goals and five draw controls while Olivia Conti had three caused turnovers.
• Maddie Fields made 10 saves to earn the win in goal for the Pride.
• Alyssa Parrella led Hofstra with six goals and one assist.

Defense Wins Championships

• The Tigers lead the CAA in scoring defense, saves percentage and caused turnovers per game, marks that also ranked third, fourth and fourth in the nation this season.
• Sophomore Kiley Keating leads the CAA and is ranked sixth in the nation in saves percentage.
• Senior Tianna Wallpher has 98 caused turnovers in just three seasons with the Tigers, one behind Alexa Demski for second in program history. With two more, Wallpher will become just the second player in school history to reach 100. The school record is 144 held by Hillary Fratzke.
• Sophomore Olivia Conti leads all players in Division I in career caused turnovers per game at 2.67. Quinnipiac's Kiera Kelly is second at 2.33.
• The Tigers are 71-13 under head coach Sonia LaMonica when holding opponents under 10 goals.
• Sophomore Olivia Conti was named CAA Defensive Player of the Week on Monday, earning her second honor this season and third overall. The Tigers have now had the conference's defensive player in each of the last four weeks and five of the last seven.

Keeping it 100

• The number 100 has been a constant storyline for the Tigers this season. Towson has had four players score their 100th career goal this season. Junior Natalie Sulmonte became the latest member of the 100-goal club when she scored her first of three against Elon.
• Sulmonte joinied senior Kaitlyn Montalbano, senior Emily Gillingham and junior Carly Tellekamp in scoring her 100th career goal. Montalbano did it against Michigan, Gillingham reached the milestone at Stony Brook and Tellekamp scored her 100th career goal at Drexel.
• Head coach Sonia LaMonica reached her 100th career win with a 15-10 victory over Oregon on March 26. She is also just three wins shy of reaching 100 in eight seasons at Towson.
• With two more caused turnovers, senior Tianna Wallpher will become just the second player in school history to reach 100 for a career.

Tigers Ranked Among Nation's Best

• Towson has been ranked in the last 35 consecutive IWLCA Division I Coaches Polls dating back to Feb. 29, 2016.
• The Tigers are currently ranked at No. 6 in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll for the third time this season. The team was also ranked at No. 6 on March 26 and April 16.
• The Tigers are at No. 10 in the U.S. Lacrosse Magazine rankings. There were as high as No. 8 on March 5.
• The team's ranking at No. 6 by Inside Lacrosse represents the team's highest-ever ranking. The Tigers' previous high came on March 29, 2010 when they were at No. 7 in the IWLCA poll.

The Honors Continue to Roll In

• Sophomore Olivia Conti was named CAA Defensive Player of the Week on Monday, earning her second honor this season and third overall.
• The Tigers have now had the conference's defensive player in each of the last four weeks and five of the last seven. Sophomore Kiley Keating was named CAA Defensive Player of the Week on April 9, earning her second conference honor in the last three weeks. She also earned the honor on March 26. Senior Tianna Wallpher (April 2) and sophomore Olivia Conti (March 6) have also received the award.
• A total of five Tigers have been honored by the CAA this season. Freshman Kaitlin Thornton was named CAA Rookie of the Week on March 26 while senior Emily Gillingham (Feb. 20) and junior Natalie Sulmonte (Feb. 13) were both named CAA Player of the Week.

Three Tigers Named to Tewaarton Award Watch List

• Sophomore Olivia Conti, junior Natalie Sulmonte and senior Emily Gillingham have each been named to the 2018 Tewaarton Award watch list by the Tewaaraton Foundation.
• Conti and Stony Brook's Taryn Ohlmiller were the only sophomore's selected to the watch list.
• Towson has had at least one player named to the Tewaaraton Award watch list in each of the last two seasons after Kaitlyn Montalbano was selected in 2017.
• Five men's and five women's finalists will be announced on May 10 and invited to the 18th annual Tewaaraton Award Ceremony in Washington, D.C., on May 31.

Four Tigers Selected as Midseason All-Americans

• Four Tigers were selected as Division I Midseason All-Americans by Inside Lacrosse. The Tigers' four selections were the most in the CAA, edging the three from James Madison.
• Sophomore Olivia Conti was named to the second team and sophomore Sami Chenoweth was named to the third team while junior Natalie Sulmonte and senior Tianna Wallpher were both named honorable mention.
• Conti and Wallpher were both selected as Inside Lacrosse Preseason All-Americans.

Tigers Face Challenging Schedule

• Towson currently owns the nation's 21st-toughest schedule out of 115 teams according to NCAA.com. The Tigers' 17 opponents this season boast a record of 134-90 for a .598 winning percentage.
• To date, the team has played the 31st-toughest schedule in the nation as its 14 previous opponents have a record of 104-77 for a .575 winning percentage.
• Seven of Towson's opponents are currently ranked in the IWLCA Division I Coaches Poll. The Tigers opened the season with back-to-back home games against No. 17 Penn State (Feb. 10) and No. 23 Georgetown (Feb. 18) before traveling to No. 10 Loyola (Mar. 7), No. 1 Stony Brook (Mar. 17) and No. 6 Florida (Mar. 21). The Tigers close out the regular season with back-to-back games at No. 25 Johns Hopkins on April 25 and at home against No. 4 James Madison on April 28.

Up Next for Towson

• The Tigers head across town to take on local rival Johns Hopkins of the Big Ten on Wednesday at 4 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on ESPNU.
• Towson posted an 18-5 victory over the Blue Jays at home last season and a 9-4 win in the last meeting between the two at Homewood Field on Apr. 2, 2016.