Women's Lacrosse Never Trails in 12-8 Win at William and Mary

Sunday, April 16

Williamsburg, Va.

12 p.m.

Drexel University

7-6, 2-1

William & Mary

3-12, 0-4

DREXEL

William & Mary

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Women's Lacrosse Never Trails in 12-8 Win at William and Mary

4/16/2017 2:18:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – The Drexel women's lacrosse team got back in the win column on Sunday afternoon as the Dragons defeated William & Mary on the road, 12-8. The Dragons used a big first half to build an eight-goal lead and kept the Tribe at arm's length down the stretch to improve to 7-6 overall and 2-1 in Colonial Athletic Association play this season.

Nadia Pelham-Lacey scored four times to lead the Dragons, who led 9-1 at halftime. Devin Nihill added a hat trick and Alex Beilman scored twice. Defensively, the Dragons caused 18 of William & Mary's 23 turnovers, with Molly Savage coming up with four caused turnovers and Rachel Warden adding three. Maggie Stetson set a new career high with six draw controls, with Eva Winiarski adding a pair. Carlee Ries made eight saves to get the victory in goal.

The Dragons jumped out to a fast start and never looked back as they never trailed in the victory. Drexel got on the board first when Nadia Pelham-Lacey scored just over four minutes into the action. Devin Nihill followed less than a minute later, and after the Tribe scored what would be their only goal of the first half with 16:04 remaining, Drexel rattled off seven straight to end the half.

The run started with Caroline Thiele's seventh of the year just 23 seconds after William & Mary's goal. Nihill and Pelham-Lacey followed with goals just 34 ticks apart. Lisa Rogers, who was making her return to the starting lineup after missing two games due to injury, netted her 13th of the year with 9:28 remaining before halftime. Pelham-Lacey made it a 7-1 Drexel lead with her 30th goal of the season and third of the afternoon, and Alex Beilman ripped home her 10th of the year with 4:55 to play to make it 8-1. Nihill, who also had a pair of caused turnovers and two ground balls in the opening 30 minutes, scored her third of the day with 3:14 to go before halftime, finishing off the scoring.

Maggie Stetson, who matched a career high with four draws in the loss at Elon on Friday, one-upped herself in the first 30 minutes of play on Sunday. The sophomore won five draws in the first half, all but one of the draws won by the entire Drexel team. Stetson would finish the day with six, establishing a new career high. Though the Dragons won just six of 11 first-half draws as a team, they did force 14 William & Mary turnovers to aid their scoring run. Six different players caused multiple turnovers on behalf of the Dragons, including Nihill, Rogers, Molly Savage, Lindsay Shettle, Rachel Warden and Jamie Schneidereith. Carlee Ries stopped four of the five shots that got through to her in the first half.

The second half was not as smooth for the Dragons, although the defense held William & Mary at bay for long enough that the big lead built up in the first half held up. The Tribe scored the first five goals of the second half before Pelham-Lacey's fourth goal of the afternoon gave Drexel a 10-6 lead with 15:53 to play. The Tribe scored once more with 4:54 to go, but Beilman added her second of the day with 1:21 remaining and Shettle scored her first of the year 55 seconds later to help the Dragons seal the victory away.

Drexel will now return home to Vidas Field for its next game. The Dragons will face the top two teams in the CAA next weekend, with No. 17 James Madison heading into University City on Friday afternoon in a game slated to start at 5:00 p.m. The Dragons will also visit No. 13 Towson next Sunday.