Davidson cools HPU in women's lacrosse
Feb. 11—HIGH POINT — High Point University couldn't sustain a hot start and fell to Davidson 17-13 in the women's lacrosse season opener for both squads Saturday at Vert Stadium.
Led by the playmaking of attacker Mean Loescher, the Panthers scored the first four goals and six of the first eight before the Wildcats fought back. HPU fell behind 10-8 in the third quarter, went up 11-10 with 6:13 left in the third quarter and was outscored 7-2 the rest of the way.
"Davidson alway makes great adjustments," HPU head coach Lyndsey Boswell said. "We shifted our focus and relaxed a little bit. At different times we focused on the wrong things and during those moments Davidson took advantage."
Loescher, now HPU's offensive leader with the graduation with record scorer Abby Hormes, tallied five goals and dished four assists. She had a hand in all of the scoring during the hot starts, scoring three times and setting up three goals.
"Her vision shooting and distributing the ball was so huge," Boswell said. "She needed a game like that. She dealt with adversity after last season. Seeing her come out with confidence today and locked into her zone was really awesome."
Loescher put the ball in the net a sixth time, as HPU trailed 9-8 with 9:24 left in the third quarter, but Loescher was called for a dangerous follow through and received a 2 minute penalty. With the player advantage, Davidson scored 22 seconds later for a two-goal lead.
"The momentum shift came when Mena got her card," Boswell said. "You pulled that back and were even at 9-9, and we give up a goal. The shift could have very well happened at that point of the game. There were some tough breaks with the officials. That's how it goes."
HPU steadied enough to score three straight goals — one each by Grace Bruce, Loescher and Pia Cavallaro.
Davidson rattled off three straight scores, going ahead to stay at 12-11 with seconds left in the third quarter. Loeschers's final goal with 9:21 left pulled the Panthers within one at 13-12. Davidson went on another three goal run that included a free positions shot, one with a player advantage and one at a player disadvantage for a 16-12 cushion with 3:27 left.
Julianne Carey and Riley Cochrane scored five goals each for the Wildcats, which held a 19-14 advantage in draw controls.
"At points we played the scoreboard and when you are at a deficit, you can get a little more hesitant," Boswell said. "I think that hesitation was the difference in our scoring in the fourth quarter, and the draw controls became a bit of a problem. So possession time was limited and we didn't get the number of opportunities that we needed."
The Panthers finished with a 35-32 advantage in shots but Davidson goalie made 11 saves while Taylor Suplee had seven in the cage for HPU.
Kay Rosselli, Jordan Miles and Emma Geonvese each scored twice for HPU.
"Mena is the quarterback of our offense," Boswell said. "She distributed the ball to others. There were opportunities for other people. She executed her shooting and that made her stand out. If you look at the amount of shots that other attackers and midfielders were getting, we just weren't executing on them."
The Panthers return to action when they host Mount St. Mary's on Saturday at noon.
