AKRON, Ohio – Six different players found the back of the net for the Presbyterian College lacrosse squad on Tuesday night, carried to a 10-9 triumph over the Akron Zips behind a four-score opening frame and a defense that held the opposition to just three goals over the first and last periods put together. Thirteen free-position opportunities and a +12 shot differential allowed the Blue Hose to assemble their second W of the young schedule that came down to the waning moments.
Needing six-and-a-half minutes to open the game’s scoring on the first of a team-high three strikes from senior Abby Edmisten, PC never surrendered a lead that reached as high a margin as four on two separate occasions, holding onto a two-score halftime advantage and keeping the Zips at bay for a major confidence-booster.
In a contest pushed to an indoor venue due to inclement weather in the area, Presbyterian adjusted swimmingly to the change in setting by scoring at least twice in all four quarters on Tuesday, kicking off the team’s two-game Ohio venture and overall four-game road sequence with a clutch performance a la the one-goal victory at Delaware State two weeks back.
NOTABLES
- Not only did Edmisten become the first Blue Hose player to hit double-digits in her personal goal count this semester (now with 12 in five appearances), but the fourth-year luminary achieved a landmark that only one other Presbyterian performer has found in the past: a career goal total of 100 and counting. Needing two to seal the deal, Edmisten took all of nine minutes to get it done by producing PC’s first pair of goals in the early going, both off of a free position look.
- In fact, exactly half of the successful attempts from a Blue Hose stick came in a similar FPS fray, with the Willow Hammond/Tayler Hofmeister/Kylie Sullivan trio responsible for the other three cash-ins of Akron defensive fouls/violations.
- Sullivan and Hammond joined Edmisten as fellow PC reps to finish with more than one goal, part of an offensive unit that gathered 25 on-target tries and 32 ground ball recoveries. The blue and white won 10 draw control instances on their way to the stringent win, gaining one save in each period from freshman keeper Lilly Phillips who grabbed her second personal W.
- Head coach Eric Clakeley’s defense stayed the aggressor even in possession of the lead, turning the Zips over 13 times, three from the disruption of rookie Avery West and a couple other interventions by Kendall Goldfarb. Altogether, the Blue Hose found six different players with three ground balls or higher, led by Phillips’ six.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The sophomore tandem of NaQuia Hall and Mickey Paredes picked up where Edmisten left off by sending in two unanswered strikes over the 1st period’s final four minutes, putting PC ahead by a trio in the process. Hammond’s unassisted rifle at the 10:22 stamp of the next frame gifted the visitors their largest lead to that point at 5-1.
- Akron settled into a more back-and-forth rhythm as the nonconference meeting settled into the 2nd, translating to a 3-2 edge in their favor that was captured on a 1:28 score to bring the deficit to 6-4 at intermission. This sequence set the stage for a chaotic 3rd stanza that ultimately kept the hole at a deuce when the dust settled from a four-goal arrangement that lasted barely three minutes.
- Both sides netted two swings each before there was time to blink as the pace rapidly rose out of the locker room exit, with Hofmeister’s first goal of 2023 thrusting the advantage back to its highest point at 8-4. Akron countered with two strikes just 66 seconds apart from one another, forcing the game’s tendencies to lower to a defensive lull for the rest of the quarter.
- Following the goal frenzy in the half’s opening moments, neither side was able to find another score until 11 uninterrupted minutes grazed by, silenced with a woman-up opportunity from the Zips that nailed its crosshairs with 16 ticks to go in the 3rd.
- Seemingly unable to put Akron to bed no matter the size of the offensive burst, PC never wavered and kept their composure while still ahead by one, bringing the advantage to 9-7 with 63 seconds elapsed in the 4th and again back up to two with under four minutes remaining.
- Hammond and Edmisten delivered the goods for the Blue Hose when the pressure mounted the most, settling the rubber match of what was a 1-1 series over the past three years. Edmisten’s goal trifecta stands as the 26th time in her PC tenure with a single-game performance of more than one score, doing so for the fourth consecutive contest (one off a career-long five-game streak of such efforts in 2021).
- The senior joins Catherine Ellis (2011-14) as the only two Presbyterian members to hit the century mark in the goal department, earning 123 total points since 2020.
KENT, Ohio – Taking a seven-goal haymaker from Kent State over the first 15 minutes only to regain their composure and limit any similar outbursts over the remaining three chapters, the Presbyterian College lacrosse team pushed the Golden Flashes into a brick wall defensively following that frenzied opening for an 11-10 road W on Thursday afternoon.
Sophomore keeper Naomi Lauderbaugh anchored PC’s four-goal rally by vastly slowing down a KSU offense that was cooking with gas after the first stanza, allowing the Blue Hose attack to steadily chip away at the deficit until they broke the door down all the way to seize their third victory of the year by a single score.
Four different Presbyterian players totaled at least two goals in the thrilling win at a hostile environment, led by recently-turned 100-goal member Abby Edmisten’s quartet. Willow Hammond, Kylie Sullivan, Ava Ward, and Avery West pieced together the other seven strikes that PC had to offer on Thursday, concluding the contest on a 5-2 flurry when faced with an 8-6 hole.
NOTABLES
- While head coach Eric Clakeley’s offense deserves immense praise for going toe-to-toe with an opponent that had already posted 15 goals or more on three different dates, Lauderbaugh takes the cake by halting four Kent State attempts in the nail-biter, chugging through 45 minutes of exceptional defensive work.
- Madison Foti, Paige Gacek, Taryn Tomas, and Kendall Goldfarb contributed to PC’s turnaround with nine ground ball scoops amongst themselves, part of a back line that bustled the Golden Flashes into seven caused turnovers.
- Magnified to a great degree when considering the miniscule margin of victory, Presbyterian was able to catch Kent State sleeping not once, not twice, but thrice as the bout heated up in intensity, netting a trio of goals within a period’s final nine seconds – two of which came from the stick of Edmisten.
- Across a nonconference matchup that featured five ties and a KSU advantage for most of the affair, PC was gifted their first lead in the waning moments of quarter #3 on Edmisten’s aforementioned last-second swing, eventually finding the game-winning sequence by Hammond on an unassisted cash-in with 4:20 on the clock.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Ascending to an unparalleled pace of offensive weaponry out of the blocks, a 7-4 score with just one period down officially registered as the highest-scoring period involving the Blue Hose since the sport transitioned from halves to quarters at the start of the 2022 campaign. Kent State succeeded in all but one of its shot tries in the 1st, although were only ahead by a triple thanks to Edmisten, West, Ward, and Hammond answering back in a timely manner.
- Ward’s first of two scores kicked off a 3-0 run from the visitors that bled into the halfway point of the 2nd, and although the Golden Flashes remained coveting the lead at intermission, it was coach Clakeley’s group that held all the momentum due to Edmisten’s woman-up opportunity with nine ticks left until the horn to make it 8-7.
- Only six combined goals categorized the final two chapters after the breakneck tempo of the game’s first half, but just two of them came from the home side thanks to PC’s constant ball pursuit and Lauderbaugh’s preventative efforts. The Blue Hose were able to escape KSU’s clutches despite being -14 in the draw control count.
- Edmisten (the team’s offensive leader with 16 strikes and counting this year) ramped up her scoring total to seven over the past two meetings that also includes a 10-9 triumph at Akron 48 hours earlier, scoring twice less than five minutes apart to put Presbyterian ahead in crunch time.
- The always-reliable fourth-year leader has now tied a career-best for the longest streak of multi-goal games in her career, equaling a five-game series when she was a sophomore. Edmisten has recorded 22 total points this season, alongside 129 overall while donning the blue and white.
- As Kent State again brought the meeting to a deadlock with 12:35 remaining, Hammond would be the one to throw out the lifejacket at the under-five mark with her 11th score of the year – a figure that ties Sullivan for the second-most on the roster. Her performance goes down as the ninth time in her underclassman tenure with two goals or more in a single outing, doing so for the third occasion in a row.
- PC was able to successfully gain a measure of payback from KSU’s 15-12 win in Clinton last spring, ending the team’s two-game trip to Ohio with consecutive W’s that each necessitated a high level of focus and endurance to achieve.
UP NEXT
- Presbyterian’s long stretch of pure road meetings continues into this week, although with a substantially-shorter trip on the horizon Wednesday to face off with the Clemson Tigers. 4 p.m. will designate the start time of the in-state duel against a first-year program that has wasted no time in making waves on a national degree.
- Clemson was included as the #24 team in the nation as part of the latest IWLCA rankings (released every Monday), rewarding the Tigers for a 7-2 start and a three-game winning streak approaching Thursday’s showdown with 4th-ranked Boston College. Gaining their victories by an average margin of 15 goals per trip, Clemson figures to be a tall task for a PC squad that continues to improve with each passing outcome.
Acrobatics &
Tumbling: Blue Hose
Post Season-High Score
Against Quinnipiac
on Senior Day
In a matchup of Top 15 teams on Senior Day, the 14th-ranked Presbyterian College Blue Hose (0-5) Acrobatics & Tumbling team put together its best performance of the season in a tightly contested loss to the 4th-ranked Quinnipiac Bobcats (3-0), 271.410-255.730 at the Templeton Center. PC recorded a season-high points total.
After the meet, the Blue Hose honored seniors Madeline Johnson, Ashlyn Getway, Annie Blakely, Elizabeth Grier, Morgan Todd, Maddie Watkins, Jaden Haley, Maya Cunningham, Ciera Carter, Amirah Boyd, and Shayla Snow who were competing in their final home meet.
“The seniors have displayed a lot of leadership this year,” Presbyterian coach Kara Christian said. “They have really helped me in my first season as the head coach. They were part of the inaugural team here so because of them the rest of us have this opportunity to coach and compete in the sport at Presbyterian.”
HOW IT HAPPENED
* The Blue Hose scored a season-high 36.50 in the Compulsory Event which included season-best scores of 9.50 in the Pyramid Heat, 9.55 in the Toss Heat, and 9.25 in the Tumbling Heat.
* Presbyterian scored a season-best 28.10 in the Acro Event which included season-best scores of 9.40 in the 5-Element, 9.10 in the 6-Element, and 9.60 in the 7-Element.
* In the Pyramid Event, the Blue Hose scored a season-best 28.15 which included a program-best-tying score of 9.75 in the Synchronized Heat and a 9.90 in the Open Heat.
* In the Toss Event, PC scored 25.30 with a season-best score of 8.90 in the Open Heat.
* In the Tumbling Event, the Blue Hose scored a season-high 50.45 led by Abby Katz’s 9.175 in the Aerial Pass.
* Presbyterian posted a score of 87.23 in the Team Event.
NOTABLES
* The Synchronized Pyramid team of Getway, Cunningham, Carter, Boyd, Todd, Snow, Watt, Kat Iacobelli, Robyn Beeman, and Dilara Michlena recorded a score of 9.75.
* The Open Pyramid team of Todd, Snow, Boyd, Beeman, Watt, and Getway posted a score of 9.90.
UP NEXT
Presbyterian returns to action on the road at Emmanuel on Sunday, April 2 at 3 p.m.
Men’s Tennis:
Blue Hose Cruise
Past the Saints
GAFFNEY – Behind two doubles and six singles wins, the Presbyterian Blue Hose (9-9) cruised past the Limestone Saints (5-4), 7-0, on the road on Saturday afternoon. Limestone is ranked No. 32 in the ITA Division II national poll.
DOUBLES
Presbyterian posted doubles wins at number one and three doubles to capture the doubles point for the 12th time this season. At number one doubles, Sebastian Dominguez and Javier Matos recorded their ninth win of the season with a 6-1 win. Limestone evened the doubles matches at one with victory at number two doubles. The doubles tandem of Denim Yadav and David Mamalat clinched the doubles point for the Blue Hose with a 6-4 win at number three doubles.
SINGLES
Presbyterian earned the overall victory by sweeping the six singles matches all in straight sets. At number four singles, Matos won his ninth straight match with a 6-0, 6-1 win. Mamalat and Pedro Cardoso did not drop a game in posting 6-0, 6-0 wins at number five and six singles respectively. At number one singles, Presbyterian’s Dusan Milanovic, who is ranked No. 64 in the ITA singles rankings, collected a 6-0, 6-4 win for his fifth straight win. At number two singles, Presbyterian’s Max Benson gave the Blue Hose a 6-0 lead after a 6-2-, 6-3 win. Yadav closed out Presbyterian’s win with a 6-4, 6-4 win at number three singles.
UP NEXT
Presbyterian has a week off before a road match at Elon Saturday, March 25 at 1 p.m.
Presbyterian 7, Limestone 0
SINGLES
1. #64 Dusan Milanovic (PC) def. Diego Arzaluz (LU) 6-0, 6-4
2. Max Benson (PC) def. Ramiro Hernandez (LU) 6-2, 6-3
3. Denim Yadav (PC) def. Andre Zamorano (LU) 6-4, 6-4
4. Javier Matos (PC) def. Andres Cortes (LU) 6-0, 6-1
5. David Mamalat (PC) def. Thomas Jouanneau (LU) 6-0, 6-0
6. Pedro Cardoso (PC) def. Rodolfo Villavicencio (LU) 6-0, 6-0
Order of Finish: 4,5,6,1,2,3
DOUBLES
1. Javier Matos/Sebastian Dominguez (PC) def. Andres Cortes/Andrea Zamorano (LU) 6-1
2. Ramiro Hernandez/Diego Arzaluz (LU) def. Teo Cariov/Pedro Cardoso (PC) 6-4
3. Denim Yadav/David Mamalat (PC) def. Rodolfo Villavicencio/Thomas Jouanneau (LU) 6-4
Order of Finish: 1,2,3
SOFTBALL:
GREENVILLE, N.C. – Still feeling the flow of a season-best offensive bombardment to finish out the Jolly Roger Invite hosted by East Carolina, the Presbyterian College softball team (19-7) repeated their scorching batting numbers in Sunday’s opening bout against Cleveland State in an 11-6 shootout before ending the weekend with a near-historic comeback that fell just shy of completion in a 9-8 nail-biter against ECU in hostile territory.
Finishing the school’s first-ever trip to the Pirates’ venue with their second 1-1 result in as many days against a couple of high-quality participants, the Blue Hose moved their overall record to 19-8 when all was in the bin, spreading the wealth around with eight extra-base swings put together and five home runs – two of which came from sophomore Morgan Hess across back-to-back innings in the edge-of-your-set climax versus ECU.
Led by an otherworldly performance by Layna Johnson with the bat in her hands (6-of-8 at the plate, two scores batted in, a double, a homer, and a ridiculous six runs gained herself), Presbyterian was able to continually punish the Vikings in the day’s opening act and did more of the same against East Carolina when their backs were against the wall, totaling 23 hits and 19 runs in a frantic couple of outcomes.
