TOWSON, Md. – Friday evening the Towson University women's lacrosse team will play in the semifinals of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Championship. Following a 5-1 outing in conference play, the Tigers drew the two-seed and will face three seeded Hofstra with a 7 p.m. opening draw.
 
The game will be streamed for free on LSN with live stats through JMUSports.com, links for streaming and live stats can be found on the women's lacrosse schedule page on TowsonTigers.com. Both the semifinal games and the championship game will be played at Sentara Park on the campus of James Madison.
 
Preceding the Towson and Hofstra game is the first semifinal between No. 1 seed JMU and No. 4 seed Elon, starting at 4 p.m.
 
Last Time Out
The Tigers are coming off a three-goal win at Delaware to close out the regular season last Saturday. Towson was led by Natalie Sulmonte who scored four goals and Nicole Liucci who tallied three to secure the win. A back-and-forth first half resulted in a 10-9 lead for the Blue Hens at half. Entering the second period, the Tigers scored six unanswered goals to take a 15-10 lead with 13:02 left to play. Delaware scored the next three, cutting the lead to two, before Sulmonte struck on a free position attempt extending the lead to three with 4:55 to go. The Blue Hens scored once more but Shelby Stack's goal at the 1:32 mark put the game out of reach.
 
The Hofstra Series
Friday night will be the 41st meeting between Towson and Hofstra, the two teams previously met on April 19 on Long Island. The Tigers lead the series 25-15 and have won four of the last five. In their last meeting, Towson came away with a 13-12 victory at the end of a tight game. Entering halftime, the road team was in the lead 5-4, but both teams scored eight goals in the second half. Shelby Stack scored the game-winner and Natalie Sulmonte paced the team with five goals. The last time the squads met in the CAA Championship was in 2015 when the Tigers took a 7-3 upset win in Newark.
 
Scouting the Tigers
Towson has won six of its last eight games, dating back to March 30. The Tigers are led by Natalie Sulmonte who averages three goals per game and 65 draw controls on the season. Kaitlin Thornton leads Towson in assists with 14 this year, she is second in points with 42. Defensively, Sami Chenoweth is atop the statistics with 63 caused turnovers, averaging 3.9 per game. Goalie Kylie Keating leads the team in ground balls with 39, while Chenoweth and Olivia Conti have 37 each. In the net, Keating has 148 saves on a .448 save percentage.
 
Scouting the Pride
Hofstra enters the week after taking a 19-11 win over Drexel last weekend. The Pride are led by Alyssa Parrella, the nation's leader in goals per game. Parrella is averaging 4.82 goals per game and scored seven goals against Towson in the meeting on April 19. Katie Whelan leads Hofstra in assists with 28 this season, while Darcie Smith leads in draw controls with 111. Smith also leads the team in caused turnovers with 28 and ground balls with 35. Jess Smith has started all 17 games in the net for the Pride, she has grabbed 165 saves on .514 save percentage. The Pride finished the regular season with an 11-6 overall record, 4-2 in conference play, and was receiving votes in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll three of the last four weeks.
 
Chenoweth, Sulmonte Receive Final Weekly Honors
Following a regular season road win for the Tigers, Sami Chenoweth and Natalie Sulmonte took home CAA weekly accolades. Sulmonte collected her second Player of the Week honor this season while Chenoweth received her first Defensive Player of the Week award of 2019. To conclude the season, Towson finished with five weekly awards won.
 
Tigers in National Statistics
Ending the regular season on a high note, Sami Chenoweth finished first in the nation in caused turnovers per game. She set a new Towson and CAA record for caused turnovers in a single season and is joined by Olivia Conti in the nation's top-10. Conti is ninth nationally in the same category, forcing 2.44 turnovers per game. Natalie Sulmonte is 40th in the nation in goals per game with her 3.0 average and 12th in free position goals per game averaging 1.19. Kiley Keating is 30th nationally in saves per game, grabbing 9.25 per outing.
 
Towson in CAA Stats
While Sami Chenoweth and Olivia Conti are atop the conference stats for caused turnovers per game, Natalie Sulmonte is tied for second in goals per game. Sulmonte is also sixth in draw controls per game with 4.06 on average. Chenoweth and Conti join Kiley Keating in the CAA's top-10 for ground balls per game, as Keating is fourth, Conti fifth and Chenoweth sixth, respectively. As a team, Towson leads the CAA in caused turnovers per game with 11.56 per game.
 
Climbing the Leaderboard
Three upperclassmen of the women's lacrosse team are looking at more honors to add to their college athletic bios as the season comes to an end. Currently, Natalie Sulmonte has 236 career points, fifth in the program top-10 in career points. Sulmonte has 174 goals in her career, fifth in the program top-10. The senior remains in the single season records for draw controls at third for her 2018 numbers and currently fifth with 65 draws this year. Sulmonte's 280 career draw controls have her second in the program top-10. Sami Chenoweth holds two single season spots, and currently is third in career caused turnovers with 129. Above her in the program career caused turnover top-10 list is Olivia Conti who is second, with 140, she also holds two places in the single season list.
 
The Fighting Freshmen of Towson
On the offensive side, five members of the freshman class of Towson have produced throughout the season. Kerri Thornton is one of two freshmen who have started every game this season, Erin Williams the other rookie who has had 16 starts. Thornton is joined by Kerri and Nicole Liucci, Molly Lynch and Julia Porter of freshmen who have scored this season. The rookie class has scored 30 goals and recorded 14 assists through the regular season.
 
Watch the Fight for the Throne
The 2019 CAA Women's Lacrosse Championship hosted by JMU is open for fans to watch and take part in. There is no admission for attending either semifinal game or the championship game on Sunday. All games will be played at Sentara Park, unless the location is changed due to weather.