BUCKHANNON, W.Va. – The Slippery Rock University women's lacrosse team continued the best start in school history with a convincing 19-3 win on the road at West Virginia Wesleyan Tuesday in non-conference action.
 
The Rock, who entered the game ranked 17th in the latest Nike/US Lacrosse Division II national poll and were receiving votes in the coaches' poll, improve to 7-0 for the first time in program history with the victory. The Bobcats drop to 1-6 on the year with the loss.
 
Tuesday's game marked the most comfortable of the season for Slippery Rock after opening the year with three straight one-goal games and not having a margin of victory of more than six goals through the first six games.
 
West Virginia Wesleyan scored the first goal of the game less than three minutes in, but Slippery Rock took over and ran away with the game after that. The Rock tallied seven straight goals and opened up a 10-2 halftime advantage.
 
That margin was pushed out to 17-2 midway through the second half after a 10-0 run from The Rock put the game out of reach.
 
Slippery Rock finished with advantages of 33-13 in shots, 16-7 in draw controls and 15-12 in ground balls.
 
The Rock got goals from 13 different players and points from 15 different players in the game, including the first career goals for defensive players Miranda Reininger, Morgan McLaughlin and Danie Porath.
 
Ally Culhane and Tia Torchia each recorded a hat trick to lead the attack and Caitlynn Palladino added two goals and one assist. Kelsey Thoensen also scored two goals to round out the players with multiple points.
 
Erin Brown, Bre Vodde, Lisa Casagrande, Tori Penders, Sami Gentzler and Kelly Muenster all scored one goal and Chynna Chan and ShyAnne Toomer each handed out one assist to round out the point scorers.
 
Emily Bitka played the first half in goal and improved to 7-0 on the year after recording four saves and allowing two goals. Tori Greco played the final 30 minutes in goal and allowed one goal while making four saves.
 
West Virginia Wesleyan was led by Madison Duvall with two goals and Samantha Pappas with one goal. Lovely Ordonez-Lopez allowed four goals in the first 15 minutes in goal for the Bobcats to take the loss. She was replaced by Alexus Bonner, who allowed 15 goals and made seven saves in the final 45 minutes of action.
 
Slippery Rock will look to continue its impressive start to the year when it returns to conference action this Saturday with a 1 p.m. game at Bloomsburg. The Huskies are unranked in the coaches' poll, but were listed No. 19 in this week's Nike/US Lacrosse poll.
 
 


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