The Elon University women’s lacrosse team seized its first-ever win in the first home game of its inaugural season at Rhodes Stadium, beating St. Francis University (Pa.) 16-7. Elon was in control for most of the game and showed an aggressive attack.
“It feels so great and to be able to do it in this stadium is really special to us,” said freshman attack Sloane Kessler. “And we’re so happy that we could do it in front of our fans. It’s a huge win for us.”
With 16 goals by eight different players, the team posted its highest scoring output of the season. Kessler led the attack with seven shots on goal, scoring five and one assist. Sydney Hesselbein netted three and Anna Vitton and Olivia Fernandez each had two goals. Ally Kozel, Elle Hvozdovic and Megan Weissman also contributed to the offensive effort of the Phoenix.
“I was just trying to stay aggressive,” Kessler said, “At first I was forcing some feeds and then once we realized that we wanted to be in command on attack, we just needed to breathe a little bit and stay aggressive on the dodge.”
“There’s so many things that Sloane does well, it’s hard to pick just one,” Hexter said. “She has great sticks, she has great vision and she’s aggressive. She’s not just a goal scorer, she’s my quarterback on the field and does a great job leading the offense.”
The Phoenix took almost twice as many shots as St. Francis, tallying 41 total, 31 of which were on goal and 5-of-7 free-position shots.
Elon started off slow and pressure by the Red Flash put the Phoenix down a goal with Rachael Larson, who had three goals on the day, putting one past Elon’s Goalie Rachel Ramirez in the first period.
“We were flat coming out,” Hexter said. “I could tell in the huddle and after the first draw, so that is something we need to work on to make sure we are ready for 60 minutes.”
The team fought back, though, and took off in its transition game that spurred the attack. Anna Vitton answered St. Francis’s first goal and led the charge of a 5-0 run by Elon that proved to be the turning point of the game.
“We executed our offense a lot better than we have in the last three games,” Hexter said. “Game to game, we’re going to get more game experience and the girls are going to gain more confidence.”
The Phoenix went 10-for-11 in clear attempts and took the advantage in groundballs, 14-4. Elon took the clear advantage in draw controls won, topping the Red Flash 18-6. Ramirez claimed her first win in goal, racking up seven saves.
“The biggest key was trying to be aggressive on both sides of the ball and give ourselves more possessions,” Hexter said. “So we wanted to make sure we were get more possessions by forcing turnovers and then on the draw. That was a big focus all week and we improved.”
St. Francis came out ready to play in the second half, with three unanswered shots and three free-position attempts in the first five minutes of the period. Then a foul by Elon’s Olivia Fernandez put the Red Flash a man up and they took full advantage, putting a goal away on a free-position shot, cutting the lead to 8-4 with just under 23 minutes left in the game.
With less than 10 minutes to play St. Francis closed the gap to only three goals with its second straight free-position goal by Danielle Conwell, her fourth of the game. But Elon held up that attack, putting away two more goals in the next minute to go up 12-7.
The defense stayed strong and the offense kept pushing forward. Weissman netted a goal, assisted by Annie Shenk, that put the Phoenix up 13-7 with just under seven minutes remaining in the game. And then a three goal run by the Phoenix in the last minute and a half put the game completely out of reach for the Red Flash.
It was a historic win for the women’s lacrosse team and the stands showed their support for this new team. Rhodes Stadium was crowded with students and fans who made it out to the game and their energy spilled onto the field.
“Our fan base was awesome. We were so ready for this game,” Kessler said. “We love the rowdy fans. We feed off of that and they were probably distracting the other team too so we really appreciated that.”
“The win is exciting, but like we told the girls, it’s by far not what it was all about, we’re still trying to make improvements,” Hexter said. “And these are all learning experiences. We just talk about breaking down the game and getting better as we go.”
The Phoenix will host its next game against conference rival the University of Detroit Mercy in its first Atlantic Sun Conference game Wednesday, March 5, at 7 p.m.