Behind three goals each from freshman midfielders Olivia Fernandez and Sydney Hesselbein, the Elon University women’s lacrosse team defeated Coastal Carolina University 12-10 Saturday Mar. 8.
Sophomore midfielder Charlotte O’Leary opened the scoring by finding the back of the net for Coastal Carolina at the 29:10 mark of the first half. The Chanticleers quickly doubled their advantage when freshman Alicia Geiter scored just 32 seconds later.
Elon scored its first goal at the 27:17 mark when freshman midfielder Annie Shenk scored. Coastal Carolina pushed its lead back to two when sophomore attack Keri White scored with 24:39 left in the first half.
From there, Elon reeled off a 6-0 run, including three unassisted goals from Fernandez. Hesselbein scored off of an assist from freshman attack Sloane Kessler at the 9:00 mark of the first half to give Elon a 7-3 lead.
The Chanticleers answered with a pair of goals, but freshman midfielder Molly Garrigan scored the final goal of the half for the Phoenix at the 3:41 mark.
Sophomore defender Rachel Waldron scored for Coastal Carolina at the 28:31 mark of the second half, but Elon got goals from Hesselbein and Garrigan to answer. Freshman attack Anna Vitton scored with 9:03 left to give Elon a 12-7 lead. The Chanticleers scored the game’s final three goals, but it was not enough as freshman Rachel Ramirez earned the win in goal for Elon.
Elon improved to 3-3 with the win, while Coastal Carolina fell to 2-3. The Phoenix will travel to face the Tar Heels of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at 7 p.m. Wednesday March 12.