PHILADELPHIA – The Saint Joseph's women's lacrosse team (2-2) will close out its trip to the West Coast against San Diego State (3-2) this Friday, March 10. Opening draw at Aztec Lacrosse Field in scheduled for 10:00 p.m. (ET).
Friday's game will mark the second all-time meeting between Saint Joseph's and San Diego State and the first on the West Coast. Despite hat tricks from Maggie Egan and Sarah Smith, the Aztecs used an unanswered five-goal run over an eight-minute, second-half stretch to come away with a 15-13 victory on Sweeney Field last spring.
After opening the season with a 15-7 win over American on February 18, the Hawks dropped a pair of one-goal games to Temple, 14-13, and Villanova, 11-10, before turning things around with an 18-17 win at Cal this past Sunday. Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week Hope Anhut led the way for the Crimson and Gray as the freshman attacker tallied seven points on a season-high five goals to go with a pair of helpers.
Senior attacker Nora McCallion (12g, 8a) and sophomore midfielder Rebecca Lane (12g, 7a) lead the Hawks with 20 and 19 points, respectively, while Anhut's 13 goals are a team-best. Egan has chipped in four goals and four assists.
Graduate student Mallory Grey has dominated in draw controls (19) while McCallion additionally leads the squad in ground balls. Junior midfielder Dana Garbinski (6gb, 6ct), junior defender Kristen Kelbon (5gb, 6ct), and sophomore midfielder Hayley Sabol (5gb, 6ct) have combined for nearly a quarter of the squad's total ground balls and half of the squad's total caused turnovers.
Graduate student goalkeeper Liz O'Sullivan (1-1) played the first 120:00 of the year, while senior Amelia Deibler (1-1) has seen all 120:00 of the last two outings.
11 Hawks have earned all four starts at this point in McCallion, Lane, Anhut, Egan, Grey, Garbinski, Kelbon, Sabol, freshman midfielder Julia Pash, sophomore midfielder Ally Beck, and junior defender Kate Payne.
After opening the season with back-to-back losses to Denver, 15-10, and Oregon, 11-9, San Diego State won three in a row at Michigan, 11-7 and Detroit Mercy, 18-7, and, most recently, at home vs. Boston University, 14-8.
Alex Watson (10g, 3a) and Kristen Hickey (10g, 3a) lead the Aztecs with 13 points apiece while Vickie Porter owns a team-best 12 goals. Ryli Quinn has won 12 draw controls while five Aztecs have scooped up double-digit ground balls, with goalkeeper Katrina Reeves (3-2) leading the way with 17 ground balls to go with a team-high 10 caused turnovers. Reeves owns a .466 save percentage and 10.13 goals against average in 278:19, all but 21:41 minutes of action.
