The Elon University women’s lacrosse team remained unbeaten in Atlantic Sun Conference play with its 18-6 victory over Stetson University April 25. This win gives the Phoenix an automatic top seed headed into the conference tournament and improves the team to 8-7 overall and 4-0 in the conference.
Molly Garrigan led the attack for the Phoenix, scoring a single-game program record seven goals, putting her at the top of the leader board with 33 goals on the season. Seven players contributed to the scoring effort for Elon, finishing 18-of-35 shots. The Phoenix outshot the Hatters 35-16 and also claimed the advantage at the draw, 15-11, with Kelli Stack winning five and Elle Hvozdovic winning four.
It was a team effort on offense as Garrigan put away seven goals off 10 shots, while Olivia Fernandez and Sydney Hesselbein followed her lead each with three goals on the day. Sloane Kessler tallied two goals and two assists alongside Anna Vitton, who finished with one goal and two assists. Annie Shenk and Megan Weissman also put goals past the Stetson defense. Elon took advantage of every free position play the Hatters gave them, scoring all four free-position shots.
On defense, the Phoenix was 13-of-15 on clear attempts and picked up 14 ground balls. Goalie Rachel Ramirez led the team with Vitton tallying three ground balls each. In goal, Ramirez finished the game with three caused turnovers and tallied eight saves off Stetson’s 14 shots on goal, claiming a 57.1 save percentage.
The Hatters took the lead in the first minute of the game with a goal off an Elon foul, but the Phoenix responded with two quick goals to take back the lead at 23:43. After another Stetson goal by Danielle Horgan that tied the game up at 2-2, Elon took off on a 7-0 run with three goals from Garrigan, two of which were assisted by Kessler. That lead for the Phoenix extended to 11-3 headed into the half with a goal by Hesselbein with less than five minutes to play.
The Phoenix came out firing in the second half with three goals from Vitton, Kessler and Fernandez in the first six minutes of the half. Stetson responded again with a goal by Mary Kate O’Sullivan to make it 14-4 at the 21:28 mark, but Hesselbein and Garrigan answered back to give the Phoenix its biggest lead of the game, 16-4. Shenk netted the final goal of the game with two minutes to play.
Elon will finish regular season play in a battle for the conference championship against Jacksonville University on Sunday, April 27. Both teams are undefeated in the A-Sun and have secured top seeds in the conference tournament. The Phoenix will take on the Dolphins at 1 p.m. in Jacksonville, Fla.