Hokie Club
Paige Petty scored her third hat trick of the season as the Virginia Tech lacrosse team defeated Elon 14-7 Saturday to move to 4-1 in 2020. The win was their third in a row.
Elon fell to 1-1.
Tech took a 6-4 lead into the locker room after scoring twice in the final minute to regain the lead, one they would not relinquish the rest of the afternoon.
"It was a little slow in the beginning of the game but we got it going and got a rhythm," said head coach John Sung. "We shared the ball pretty well today with nine assists on the 14 goals.
I thought Taylor Caskey played really well in the attack. We cleared really efficient today at over 90%.
Angie Benson was solid in the goal with seven saves and leading the defense. She's only given up two 8-meter goals in the whole season, that's incredible."
Benson and the defense caused 14 turnovers on the afternoon and the Hokies were quicker to loose balls, corralling 20 ground balls the to Phoenix's 14.
Senior Mary Clare McCarthy had a career afternoon, recording five caused turnovers of her own, a new personal best to go along with three ground balls. The Washington, DC native also found the back of the net from a free position opportunity, registering the first point of her career.
"I've never seen her jump so high to celebrate that one, I'm glad that she got it," Sung said of the goal. "I told her 'I'm going to let you take this one' and I thought she was going to forget to drop her stick once it was in."
Senior Taylor Caskey scored five points with three assists as she continues to climb the all-time assists chart.
Freshman Kayla Frank scored four more points (two goals, two assists), bringing her season tally to 30.
The Phoenix were led by two goals each from Cami Lynch, Cassidy Creighton and Cate Mackel.
INSIDE THE BOXSCORE
- The Hokies had more shots on goal (22) then the Phoenix mustered total (19).
GAME NOTES
- Senior attacker Taylor Caskey recorded five points, a season high and the most since scoring six at Liberty in 2017 her freshman season.
- Mary Clare McCarthy recorded five caused turnovers in the game, a career-best, while also grabbing three ground balls. She scored her first career point with a goal.
- Paige Petty registered her third hat trick of the season and now has 21 goals on the season to lead the Hokies.
CLIMBING THE CHARTS – A LOOK AT INDIVIDUALS IN THE RECORD BOOK
- Career points - Paige Petty moved into fifth with 164
- Career goals – Paige Petty ranks third with 145
- Career assists - Julia Bolte ranks third with 60
- Career assists - Taylor Caskey moved into seventh with 49
- Career draw controls - Paige Petty is seventh with 155
- Career draw controls – Emma Crooks is tenth with 114
NEXT TIME ON THE FIELD
- The Hokies will travel to Cincinnati (Feb. 26) and then play their first ACC game of the season at Louisville (Feb. 29) next week.
- Tech won the only meeting in history versus Cincinnati, a 19-8 contest held at the Beamer-Lawson Indoor Practice Facility in 2019. Paige Petty led all scorers with six goals, while Julia Bolte and Sarah Lubnow each added three points. Defender Elena Ricci corralled seven draw controls and had three ground balls in the contest.
- Louisville leads the all-time series 5-2, although Tech has won the meeting in each of the last two seasons, both one-goal contests. Last season the Hokies won 17-16 at Thompson Field behind six points from Mary Claire Byrne, five goals from Paige Petty and four points from Julia Bolte.
NEXT TIME AT THE BEAMER-LAWSON INDOOR PRACTICE FACILITY
- The Hokies are back home at the Beamer-Lawson Indoor Practice Facility on Wednesday, March 4 when they play host to the William & Mary Tribe.
- Tech has won all three of the past four meetings with the Tribe, but trail in the all-time series 4-6.
- The last meeting was a 17-12 victory for Tech in 2017, that featured one half played at Thompson Field and one played indoors due to weather. Five Hokies scored hat tricks led by Marissa Davey's five points and in goal Meagh Graham made 10 saves.Gallery: (2/22/2020) 2020 LACROSSE at ELON