Women's Lacrosse | March 17, 2016

PHILADELPHIA - The La Salle lacrosse team hits the road as they travel north for a pair of games this weekend. The Explorers open the trip at Sacred Heart on Friday at 3 p.m. before rounding out the weekend at Central Connecticut State on Sunday at noon.

La Salle Explorers (0-4) at Sacred Heart Pioneers (2-3)
Friday, March 18 | 3:00 PM
Live Stats  | Live Video
 
La Salle Explorers (0-4) at Central Connecticut State Blue Devils (0-5)
Friday, March 18 | 12:00 PM
Live Stats  | Live Video

Scouting the Explorers
Senior Katelyn Fay leads the team with nine goals on the season. Fay has scored multiple goals in all four games for the Explorers this season. Sophomore Brittany Edwards is second on the team with seven goals on the season. Edwards scored a career-high five goals against Robert Morris.

Junior Allee Ilgenfritz leads the team with four assists on the season. She is also tied for second on the team with eight points as she has four goals to go with her assists on the season. 

Senior Abby O'Donnell leads the team with nine ground balls on the year. She also has a caused turnover and two draw controls on the season.

Senior Allie Burnett leads the conference and is ranked 43^rd in the nation as she averages 1.75 caused turnovers per game.
 
Sophomore Lucy Loughlin has been the primary goalie for the Explorer this year as she has 27 saves on the season for La Salle.

La Salle-Sacred Heart Series History
This will be the second ever matchup between the programs with La Salle grabbing a 15-5 win over the Pioneers last season in Philadelphia. Senior Katelyn Fay scored four goals for the Explorers while Katie Fonte and Anna Kelly also added two and one goal apiece. Junior Allee Ilgenfritz assisted on four goals for La Salle. The Explorers outscored the Pioneers 11-2 in the second half. The Pioneers return all four goal scorers from a season ago against La Salle.

Scouting the Pioneers
Sacred Heart enters the weekend 2-3 on the year. The Pioneers have grabbed wins over Holy Cross and UMass Lowell while falling to Marist, Iona, and Fairfield.
 
The Pioneers lead the Northeast Conference as they are scoring 12.60 goals per game this season. They also rank second in groundballs as they average 18.2 per contest. Junior Caitlin Delaney leads the conference as she is scoring 3.80 goals per contest. Jenna Liljeberg and Jesslyn Joseph also rank in the top ten in the conference in goals at 2.40 and 1.80 per contest.

Sacred Heart has started two different goalies on the season. Sophomore Paige Hammick has started four games with a .306 save percentage while junior Carly Cavagnaro has a .462 save percentage.

Pioneers head coach Laura Cook is a 1999 graduate of Massachusetts. She faced the Explorers once as a player, grabbing a win in the first career meeting between La Salle and UMass. Cook also hails from Media, Pa.

La Salle-Central Connecticut State Series History
The Explorers and the Blue Devils have faced each other twice before with La Salle coming out ahead both previous times. The Explorers grabbed an 8-7 win in 2013 at McCarthy Stadium before grabbing a 14-8 win on the road in 2014. Katelyn Fay has five career goals against the Blue Devils with Anna Kelly adding one of her own.  

Explorers sophomore goalie Sarah Gallagher and Blue Devils sophomore Natalie Decker were teammates at Bel Air High School.

Scouting the Blue Devils
Central Connecticut State enters the weekend having fallen in its first five games of the year. The Blue Devils fell on the road at Army, Brown, and Colorado while dropping home matchups to Iona and Manhattan. Three of their losses (Army, Iona, and Manhattan) have been by one goal.
 
The Blue Devils lead the Northeast Conference in goals against average as they have only allowed opponents to score 9.47 goals per game against them so far this season. Goalie Jackie Branthover is second in the conference with a .500 save percentage on the season making 47 saves so far, averaging 9.40 per game. Branthover also has three double-digit save performances on the season.

Madison Hughes leads the team and is tied for tenth in the conference with 2.04 points per game on the season. Hughes leads the team with 12 points, seven goals and five assists on the season.

Senior Falynn McCartney has aided in the attack with six goals of her own on the season. Juniors Alexandra Hooker and Marissa Soto both have four goals so far on the year.

Next Up
La Salle returns to home to welcome LIU Brooklyn to McCarthy Stadium on Thursday at 7 p.m.