TOWSON, Md. – The regular season holds three remaining games for the Towson University women's lacrosse team. This weekend the Tigers have two conference games, at Hofstra on Friday and at home on Sunday against Drexel.
Friday's opening draw is set for 2 p.m. and will be streamed on GoHofstra.com. Sunday's game is the home regular season finale with a noon opening draw against the Dragons. Sunday is also Senior Day, celebrating the five members of the class of 2019. The game will be streamed by the Towson Sports Network on TowsonTigers.com.
Last Time Out
Towson is coming off a two-game weekend sweep with wins over Elon and William & Mary at home. In Friday's game the Tigers posted their largest margin of victory over the Phoenix with a 16-4 victory and on Sunday the home team took down the Tribe 22-12.
Natalie Sulmonte scored 10 goals through the weekend, leading the team to victory on Friday. Against William & Mary,
Kaitlin Thornton scored five goals to pace the Tigers.
The Hofstra Series
Friday will be the 40th meeting all-time between the Tigers and the Pride. Towson holds the series lead 24-15. In the last meeting the Tigers took a 15-11 win over Hofstra at home, led by
Carly Tellekamp with seven goals. The Pride have won two of the last four meetings on Long Island.
The Drexel Series
Sunday will be the 39th meeting between Towson and Drexel. The Tigers lead the series 35-3 and have won the last five straight meetings. Drexel's last win in the series came in 2014 on the Dragons' home field. In the last six meetings in Towson, the Tigers have won five. In their last meeting Drexel hosted the conference opener and Towson left with a 20-5 win.
Scouting the Tigers
With a 2-1 conference record entering the weekend, Towson is looking to secure a better seed in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Championship in two weeks. The Tigers are led by
Natalie Sulmonte with 45 points from 38 goals and seven assists, the senior also leads in draw controls with 47. In the net
Kiley Keating holds the Tigers with 117 saves on the year and a 44.5 save percentage through 13 games.
Scouting the Pride
Hofstra enters the weekend with a 9-5 record, 2-1 in conference play. The Pride have wins over High Point and Columbia and are coming off a double overtime loss to James Madison last week, 9-8. Leading the offense is Alyssa Parrella, who also leads the CAA, with 65 goals this season. Katie Whelan leads the Pride in assists with 17. Darcie Smith leads in draw controls with 88, caused turnovers with 21 and ground balls with 32. Hofstra's goalie, Jess Smith, has 136 saves on the season with a 50.9 save percentage.
Scouting the Dragons
With a record close to .500, Drexel sits at 6-7 overall, 1-2 in the CAA and will play JMU on Friday night at home before coming to town on Sunday. The Dragons are led by Colleen Grady with 44 points on 29 goals and 15 assists. Drexel has wins over Iona, Rutgers, UMBC and William & Mary. Common opponents with the Tigers are Georgetown and Johns Hopkins, the Dragons lost to both. Zoe Bennett has been the starting goalie for Drexel and has 113 saves on a 46.1 save percentage through 13 games. Karson Harris is the Dragons' leader in draw controls with 71, she is fourth in the CAA.
Tigers in CAA Stats
Natalie Sulmonte leads the Tiger offense and is third in the conference in goals per game with 2.92, while fourth in points per game with 3.46.
Kaitlin Thornton is tenth in assists per game with 11 on the year.
Kiley Keating holds fourth among conference goalies with an 11.26 goals against average, she also is fourth in the CAA in ground balls per game with 2.46 per game.
Sami Chenoweth and
Olivia Conti are first and second in the league in caused turnovers per game respectively, with 3.92 per game for Chenoweth and 2.69 for Conti.
Sulmonte Tabbed CAA Player of the Week
Last weekend
Natalie Sulmonte lit up the field with 10 goals in two games. The Levittown, New York native paced the Tigers with six goals on Friday against Elon, including the game-winner. Against the Phoenix she also assisted on a goal from
Annie Sachs. In Sunday's win over William & Mary, Sulmonte scored four goals and had another assist as the Tigers posted their second win by at least 10 goals in two days.
Senior Sunday
Seniors
Alyssa Chalk,
Kat Connelly, Megan Lynch,
Natalie Sulmonte and
Sarah Willard will be celebrated before Sunday's game against Drexel. The class of 2019 enjoyed a conference title in the 2016 year, freshman year for all five of the graduating student-athletes.
Homecoming of Sorts
While Long Island is a hotbed for lacrosse, nine players on the Towson roster hail from towns on Long Island.
Olivia Conti shares a hometown with Darcie Smith of Hofstra and a freshman on the Pride's roster as well. This will be the first time for freshmen
Kerri Thornton,
Kerri Liucci and
Nicole Liucci to play in their hometown area. On the flip side, nine players from Drexel are from Maryland, and one of the Dragons' assistant coaches is
Kelsea Donnelly, a member of the Towson women's lacrosse class of 2015. Returning to the Towson area are the Schneidereith's, two members of the set of quadruplets out of Lutherville, Maryland who graduated from Towson high school and all four play college lacrosse. Of those siblings, Maggie has already played at Towson this season as she is a member of the Johns Hopkins roster, Lucy and Jamie will come to town with the Dragons.
Join us at Unitas ®
Sunday's regular season finale is slated for a noon opening draw at Johnny Unitas ® Stadium. With Senior Day and a CAA opponent in Drexel, the afternoon is open for fun. Purchase tickets at TowsonTigers.com for our final home game of 2019.
