EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's lacrosse team jumped out to a 7-1 lead and never looked back on the way to a 12-6 upset win on the road at No. 9 East Stroudsburg University in a rainy non-conference game Wednesday from Whitenight Field.
 
The Rock improve to 3-0 on the year and pick up their first victory over a top 10 ranked opponent since an 11-9 win over No. 6 Mercyhurst on April 22, 2015. The victory snaps a skid of eight straight losses against nationally ranked teams dating back to a win over No. 18 Seton Hill on March 19, 2022. East Stroudsburg, which reached the national semifinals last spring, drops to 2-1 on the year.
 
Slippery Rock put up a dominant defensive effort and combined that with timely scoring to jump out to a 7-2 lead at halftime after outshooting the Warriors 17-7 over the opening 30 minutes. ESU put together a rally to open the second half and cut the deficit to 8-5 with 9:59 to play in the fourth, but SRU responded with a 3-0 run with goals by Abby Fink, Leora Owings and Reagan Richeson to put the game out of reach.
 
The Rock finished with a season-high 18 caused turnovers with preseason All-American Paige Jenkins leading the way with four caused turnovers and four ground balls. Owings and Nicole Masi each tallied three caused turnovers and Grace Rotter chipped in two. Masi finished with a team-high five ground balls with Erin Melcher joining Jenkins with four ground balls.
 
Lily Ventresca played her first full game as the starting goalie and was exceptional, recording eight saves and allowing just six goals to the high-powered ESU offense. It marked the fewest goals scored by ESU since an early season 15-6 loss to No. 1 West Chester last March.
 
Richeson paced the SRU attack with a career-high seven points with six goals and one assist. Rotter scored her second hat trick in the first three games of her SRU career to finish with three goals. Owings added two goals to go along with a team-high six draw controls. Fink tallied the remaining goal and Isabella Buono and Krysta Frankowski each handed out one assist to round out the point scorers.
 
Slippery Rock closed the game with advantages of 25-17 in total shots, 22-14 in shots on goal, 27-16 in ground balls, 12-10 in draw controls and 18-12 in caused turnovers. The Rock were nearly perfect on the clear, going 14-of-15 on clear attempts. ESU was 11-of-13 on the clear.
 
The Warriors were paced by Sadie Kauffman with two goals and one assist. Paige Moreland and Ariana Tucci each scored one goal and handed out one assist. Abby Simonetti allowed 12 goals and recorded 10 saves in goal to mark the second SRU game in a row where the opposing goalie had double-digit saves.
 
Wednesday's game marked the beginning of a tough five-game road swing for SRU that will begin with back-to-back nationally ranked opponents. The Rock will now travel to No. 22 Limestone in Gaffney, South Carolina Saturday for a noon game. SRU will then visit Newberry and Lander during a three-game swing through South Carolina before returning north to open PSAC West play March 22 at Gannon.
 
 


To stay up to date with all that happens at The Rock, follow our official athletic communication accounts on 'X' (formerly Twitter, @Rock_Athletics), Facebook (RockAthletics) and Instagram (RockAthletics).