April 6, 2007
NORFOLK, Va. -- The Old Dominion women's lacrosse team never trailed as they raced out to a 4-0 and held off a late Drexel comeback in its 14-12 victory over the Dragons in the 2007 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) opener.
The victory snapped the Lady Monarchs three-game losing streak to improve to 4-4 overall and 1-0 in the CAA. The Dragons meanwhile fall to 7-3 overall and 0-2 in conference play.
Old Dominion was led by senior midfielder Caroline Jacobs (Gaithersburg, Md.) with a career-high tying seven points stemming from five goals and two assists, giving her a hand in half of ODU's scoring on the afternoon.
Jacobs was one of six different Lady Monarchs to score in the victory. Other multiple goal scorers included junior Kelly Kimener (Oakton, Va.) posted her second hat trick of the year with three goals and senior Katie Veneziale (Downingtown, Pa.) and Ashley Kellogg (Downingtown, Pa.) with two apiece. Junior Kaelyn Schival (Horsham, Pa.) netted what would be the eventual game-winner, the first of her career, and freshman Nicole McMahon (Lusby, Md.) registered her first career goal as a Lady Monarch.
Jacobs moved into fifth on the all-time ODU points leaders list with 142 under her belt and also moved into eighth on the all-time goals leaders list with 96 career tallies. Additionally, Veneziale's lone assist moved her into sole possesion of 10th place on the all-time ODU assists leaders list.
The Dragons had nine different members of its squad find the back of the ODU net led by Emily Hoesch with four.
The Lady Monarchs raced out to a 4-0 lead in a game in which they never trailed. The Dragons were not able to get onto the scoreboard until the 12:25 mark of the first half. Old Dominion held a 7-2 advantage until Drexel managed to score back-to-back goals in a span of 13 seconds in the half's final 30 seconds. The Lady Monarchs entered the intermission holding an 8-4 edge.
Drexel came out of halftime to score the second half's first two goals, marking four unanswered Dragon goals beginning in the closing seconds of the first half. Kimener stopped the Drexel run as Old Dominion then scored three straight for an 11-6 ODU lead with 21:47.
Old Dominion extended its lead to 12-7 off a Veneziale goal at the 17:20 mark, but Drexel made another run. The Dragon's collected three straight goals and pulled within two. The last goal by Gweenna Johnson had Drexel trailing 12-10 with 8:53 remaining in the game.
Less than two minutes later Schival gave the Lady Monarchs what would be the eventual game-winner and helped put Old Dominion up 13-10. However, the Dragons still did not go away.
After Schival's goal, Drexel would collect the next two ensuing draw controls and race down field for goals. The Lady Monarchs' edge disappeared to one, 13-12, with 5:39 left in the game. However, Old Dominion would not allow another Drexel shot on net and managed to cushion its lead with Jacobs' fifth and final goal at the 3:56 mark.
The Dragons did manage to outshoot the Lady Monarchs, 28-22. Old Dominion held a 13-10 advantage in shots in the first half, but was outshot 18-9 in the second half.
Drexel also had a 16-11 edge in groundballs and a 16-12 advantage in draws. Four different Lady Monarchs, freshman Jillian Taylor (), Kellogg, Jacobs, and Veneziale, had two in the win. Jacobs led Old Dominion in draws with three.
In net, Sara Larson (Sylvan Lake, Mich.) posted 11 saves for the Lady Monarchs. Lauren LaBella and Rachael Behrndt combined for seven saves in the loss.
The Old Dominion women's lacrosse team returns to action on Sunday, April 8th when they host Hofstra in another CAA match-up. The Lady Monarchs and Pride draw at 1:00 p.m. at Foreman Field.