MADISON, N.J. (Mar. 4, 2016) -- Sophomore midfielder
Juliana Strazulo netted the first goal of the game just five minutes in and didn't look back in the Drew University women's lacrosse team's first victory of the season, 12-8, over Swarthmore College at home.
Friday night's win saw the best game of Strazulo's young career. In addition to her four-goal effort, she led the team in both draw controls (6) and caused turnovers (3). She also scooped up three ground balls in the all-around performance. Junior midfielder
Morgan Mason registered her second hat trick in a row in a nine-shot effort, adding an assist. Sophomore midfielder
Maddie Spiess capitalized on back-to-back free position shots, and added to her team-leading seven goal total. Junior attacker
Kelly Dwyer, Sophomore attacker
Sage Johnson, and sophomore midfielder
Nicole Kinney all pitched in goals as well. Junior goalkeeper
Gianna Minogue turned in a 12-save effort to grab her first win of the year.
The win marked the first in the head coaching career of
Jane Karger, who took the reigns of the Ranger program this summer.
"I'm proud of team," Karger said. "They worked well together and executed the things we've been working on. It was all about the details of the game plan rather than getting caught up in the heat of the moment. Juliana was all over the field and made the difficult plays. Gianna backed up our defense and put together her third straight great game in row."
Following a five shot frenzy that had the Garnet (0-1) defense reeling, Strazulo hopped into the zone and whipped in the night's first score. Strazulo's big night was in the stars and could've been predicted after she took four of the team's first six shots. Following her goal, her fellow Californian Spiess attacked the offensive zone urgently and drew two free position shots, both of which she took advantage of for goals. The Rangers (1-2) led 3-0 after 12 minutes.
Strazulo came right back to extend Drew's cusion to four when she responded to a Mason drive that went just left and grabbed her hat trick with more than 45 minutes still to go. After Swarthmore responded with two, the Rangers came right back with goals from Dwyer and Kinney to take it to the half with a 6-2 lead.
Out of the break, Johnson drilled home her first goal of the year. After that, Strazulo and Mason traded scores without Swarthmore mounting much of a threat to the lead the Rangers built. Swarthmore went on a 6-2 run of goals, but with just one minute remaining and an 11-8 lead, Drew rested on its laurels. Mason provided the icing with a lazer shot with just five seconds left in the contest that zipped just under the crossbar.
Drew outshot Swarthmore, 34-27, while the clearning game was about equal with Drew at 14-of-20 and the Garnet at 14-of-18. Drew picked up two more ground balls, 20-18, and were a perfecr 4-for-4 on free position shots compared to Swarthmore's 2-for-7 thanks in part to the play of Minogue.
Drew will look to transfer some of this positive energy cross-country as they head to Strazulo and Spiess's home state of California for a couple of non-conference games, the first of which, against Chapman University is scheduled for an 11:00 a.m. start on Tuesday, Mar. 8.
