The Canisius College women's lacrosse team won it's fifth straight game on Wednesday evening as the team dropped the Marist Red Foxes on the road, 13-10. The victory improves the Griffs to 6-5 on the season and to a perfect 3-0 in MAAC play, while the loss drops Marist to 6-4 overall and 2-1 in the conference.
Canisius was led by junior Taylor Giglio who had five points in the game on two goals and three assists. Giglio wasn't the only Griff to score two goals in the game as four of her teammates each found the back of the goal at least twice. Ashley Bull, Rachel Toole and Meghan Cuddy all scored two goals for Canisius and freshman Erica Evans continued her tear, scoring three of her own.
"Today was a great character win, we really competed hard for the whole 60 minutes," said head coach Scott Teeter. "The real difference in the game though was draw controls. Ashley (Bull) really controlled the circle for us, and gave us the competitive advantage we needed. It really was a battle throughout the whole game and I'm really proud of how hard our girls performed."
The game started out with the Red Foxes taking a 3-0 lead in the first 10 minutes of action, but this wouldn't stop the Griffs who scored their first goal on a free position shot by Evans with 20:37 left in the first half. Following the first goal, the Griffs would go on a 5-3 run to close out the first half, including scoring the final two goals of the half to go into the locker room tied 6-6.
The Griffs came out on a mission in the second half, scoring three straight goals, including two by Cuddy, to go up 9-6 with 27:31 left in regulation. Marist scored it's first goal on the second half to cut into Canisius' lead with just over 24 minutes left in the game, but the Griffs came right back as Rachel Toole netted one to put Canisius back up three. The two team's would trade goals for the rest of the game and Canisius would ultimately take the game.
As mentioned by coach Teeter, the Griffs handidly won the draw control battle, winning 19 compared to just the Red Foxes six. The team was led by Bull who had 11 of her own. Canisius was also 3-5 on free-position shots compared to just 1-2 for Marist.
Senior Kayla Scully got the start in goal for Canisius, making two saves in the process, but it was freshman Rebecca VanLaeken who got the victory as she came in the second half and made four saves en route to the win.
The Griffs will look to stay hot when the team hosts Iona on Saturday, April 4 at the Demske Sports Complex at 11 a.m.
Game Notes: Freshman Erica Evans now has at least three goals in five of her first 11 collegiate games...the last time the Griffs went 3-0 to start out MAAC play was in 2013 when the team won it's first five conference games...the 11 draw controls by Bull today was a school record..head coach Scott Teeter is now 3-0 as a father.
