ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University women's lacrosse team celebrated their seniors by earning a 15-4 victory over Edgewood College on Sunday morning. Prior to the start of the event, Josie Prince, Ella Dougherty and Peri Darmofal took center stage for their efforts in the program. The win puts the Thunder above .500 at 3-2 and the Edgewood Eagles fall to 1-4 in 2023.
A quick start for Trine allowed them to pull away from their opponents early. The Thunder netted four goals within the first four minutes of play. Courtney Rhodes buried the opening goal at 13:56 remaining in the first quarter and Calista Richmond followed that up with a second score less than one minute later.
Richmond was able to find Rhodes in front of the net for goal number three of the day and Alyssa Keptner added her name to the scoring chart with a free position score that forced Edgewood to call a timeout. The break would not be very effective as Keptner once again shot it passed the keeper to go up 5-0.
Rhodes netted her third goal of the game with a few seconds to go in the quarter to make it 6-0, and the Eagles used a foul with six seconds left on the clock to score their first goal of the game.
The onslaught continued in the second quarter as the Thunder beat the Eagles 6-0 in that frame alone. Six different student-athletes had success, including Danielle Gargiulo, Darmofal, Brooke Hoag and Alyssa Lahutsky, who each scored their first goals of the morning in the quarter.
After taking a 12-1 lead into halftime, two more first-time goal scorers made their way into the box score. Avelyn McCall buried a shot with 5:46 left in the third and Kara Harris used a free position attempt to her advantage with 3:51 remaining. For Harris, it was the first goal of the freshman's career.
Edgewood used a couple of yellow cards by the home team to mount a rally and cut the deficit to 14-4, but McCall distributed a pass to Gargiulo for the final score of the day to get to the final score of 15-4.
As a team, Trine collected more groundballs (19-11), won the turnover battle (23-13), outshot (31-16) and brought in more draw controls (12-11) than their opponents. Maddy Kasten (3-2) made six saves on ten shots in goal, including a key save on a free position attempt by the Eagles that would have stopped the running clock late in the game. Hoag secured 6-of-12 draw controls for the team.
A matchup against NCAA DII Lake Erie College awaits the Thunder on Wednesday, April 5, the final non-conference game before Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) action begins. That game begins at 5 p.m.