The Shippensburg University lacrosse team kicked off its season with a bang Tuesday afternoon, defeating Georgian Court 15-6, a dominant showing by the Raiders.
Shippensburg (1-1) opened the game by scoring the first six goals and kept the Lions scoreless for 25 minutes at one point in the second half.
Five Raiders found the back of the net multiple times. Junior Alana Cardaci and sophomores Hannah Seifried and Gabby Savarino all recorded hat tricks on the day. Sophomore Hannah Raines and senior Kami Holt both contributed two goals, while junior Jena MacDonald and sophomore Sydney Costanza each added one goal to the Raiders’ scoring tally.
Raines fueled a 6-0 Shippensburg run by scoring within the first 30 seconds of the game on a free position. Georgian Court (0-2) fought back with four goals but a late first half goal by Savarino gave the Raiders a 7-4 lead at halftime.
Sydney Costanza picked up an assist early in the second half of the Raiders’ overtime loss to IUP on Saturday afternoon at Robb Sports Complex.
Shippensburg would then dismantle the Georgian Court defense by notching eight straight goals to start the second half, then kept the Lions quiet in the scoring category until there was only 4:31 left in the game.
Freshman goalkeeper Ally Weneta remained a dominant presence on defense for the Raiders in her collegiate debut. She earned 12 saves, with eight being in the first half.
After the commanding win over Georgian Court, Saturday had a different outcome for the Raiders as they fell to No. 25 Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), in overtime, 14-13.
Seifried led the way for SU as she notched 5 goals on the afternoon, bringing her total to eight goals on the young season. Cardaci and Savarino followed with three goals each and Holt contributed another two for the Raiders.
It was a back-and-forth battle the entire game. Shippensburg opened with an early 3-0 run before IUP (1-0) charged back, scoring six of the next seven goals and taking the lead 6-4 at the half.
Jessica DeMarte led the Raiders with seven draw controls in Saturday’s loss to IUP.
SU’s Savarino answered quickly to begin the second half, adding a score within the first 57 seconds. After a response from the Crimson Hawks, Cardaci earned back-to-back goals for the Raiders to tie the game at seven apiece.
From that point, the lead would change four times before regulation ended at 13-13. Chloe Borland would then seal the victory for the Crimson Hawks with a score on a free position in the final 1:10 of overtime, ultimately giving the Raiders their first loss on the new season.
The Raiders will have two more games this week. They will hit the road to face off against Seton Hill on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. before returning home on Saturday to host New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) at 1 p.m. at Robb Sports Complex.
The Slate welcomes thoughtful discussion on all of our stories, but please keep comments civil and on-topic. Read our full guidelines here.