April 2, 2009
NORFOLK, Va. -- ODU women's lacrosse (6-2) is headed on the road for a pair of games to open the Colonial Athletic Association season, as they are slated to face Delaware, Friday at 3:00 pm and Towson, Sunday at 1:00 pm. ODU is coming off one of the biggest wins in school history, upsetting #9 Virginia on April 1, 13-10, and have won three of their last four.
Leading the Lady Monarchs:
ODU is led by a pair of players with 30 points or more, in senior Kelly Kimener and junior Ashley Kellogg. Kimener leads the way, with 31 points on 23 goals and eight assists, while Kellogg has 30 points on a team-leading 25 goals and five assists.
Two others are in double figures for the Lady Monarchs, in rookie Lisa Bernardini and senior Jessica Noone. Bernardini has 20 points on 16 goals, four assists, while Noone has added 19 points on 12 goals and seven assists.
Leading defensively would be rookie goalkeeper Sarah Geary. The redshirt freshman has started all eight games in net and has played all but 1:10 of the season for ODU. She's impressed more and more with each game and has raised her save percentage to .491 on the year with 82 saves and 85 goals allowed on 214 shots faced. Geary has posted a 10.51 goals against average so far this season.
On the back line, team captain and senior Lindsey Belle leads the team in caused turnovers, with 15 and also has added 14 ground balls and eight draw controls. Three more seniors, Erica Erb, Jordan McKeon and Brittany Washko also start and have played nearly every minute this season on defense.
(Thirty-)third Time's The Charm:
On Wednesday, April 1, the Lady Monarchs defeated the University of Virginia for the first time in program history. After 32 losses, dating back to the inception of the program in 1980, ODU finally upended the Cavaliers in a 13-10 victory at the new Powhatan Sports Complex. Virginia was ranked ninth in the country, marking the first time since 2004 ODU defeated a ranked team and tying the all-time program high for margin of victory against a ranked team.
Scouting the Opponents:
Delaware: The Fightin' Blue Hens are coming off a 20-10 loss to #11 Vanderbilt on Monday, falling to 4-5 overall this season. Delaware has lost two of the last three, with a 6-5 victory over Oregon sandwiched by the Vanderbilt loss and a 11-5 setback to #20 Loyola College (Md.).
Delaware is holding opponents to under 10 goals per game, but is only scoring 8.62 themselves. Five Blue Hen players are in double figures, led by Deb Sloan with 11 goals and five assists. Jessica Cerveny has started and played the majority of the time in goal for Delaware, posting a 9.19 goals against average.
Towson: The Tigers have been up and down of late, splitting the last four games with both losses coming to nationally ranked teams, Syracuse and Maryland. Towson defeated Johns Hopkins, 16-7, on Sunday in their last game and will face William & Mary on Friday night before playing ODU this Sunday.
The Tigers lost CAA Player of the Year and All-American midfielder Hillary Fratzke earlier this season with an ACL injury, but still boast a potent offense that averages over 13 goals per game. Meggie McNamara leads the way with 35 points (19g, 16a) and Nikki Marcinik also has 32 points (22g, 10a). Mary Teeters has started all nine games with a 10.15 goals against average. She has 81 saves for a .497 save percentage on the season.
On the Road:
With a long bus trip to Delaware, assistant coach Heather Holt decided to hold a team raffle and honor a lucky Lady Monarch winner with a special prize. In honor of the start of the CAA regular season, Holt, a member of the 1995 CAA Championship team, raffled off a chance to wear her championship t-shirt, an autographed 1995 media guide and a special photo opportunity with the champ herself. The lucky winner was freshman Cory Johnson: