Drexel University Athletics
Drexel University
Towson
Drexel Set for CAA Title Rematch on Saturday at Towson
3/17/2023 4:00:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse
Location: Towson, Md.
Watch: LacrosseTV
Social Media
@DrexelWLAX | @DrexelDragons
Opening Draw
The Dragons travel to Towson on Saturday, March 18, for a rematch of last season's CAA title game. Drexel defeated the Tigers 11-10 in OT to earn the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The opening draw from LacrosseTV is scheduled for 4 p.m.
Last Time Out
Cuocco and Simpson Power Drexel to Victory over Fairfield, 10-9. The Dragon's defense held off the Stags late in the fourth quarter to earn the victory from Vidas Field on Saturday afternoon.
BY THE NUMBERS
- Hayleigh Simpson tallied six goals in a career-high.
- Peighton Bement and Camryn Ryan each caused three turnovers.
- Corinne Bednarik scored two free position goals and captured five draws.
- Jenika Cuocco earned fourteen saves in a career-high game.
- Leading the way in the circle, Maura Cissel found five draw controls.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Hayleigh Simpson earned a hat-trick in the second quarter to extend the Dragon's advantage to three goals.
- Hayleigh Simpson earned her final goal of the afternoon with 13 minutes to go to lift Drexel to a 9-8 advantage.
- The Stags were issued a yellow card with three minutes left. Bridget Finley found Alex Wall on the player up advantage, in front of the goal to give Drexel a one-goal lead with 1:59 left in the contest. In the final minute, Jenika Cuocco held strong to earn two huge saves in the cage and the DU defense forced an FFD turnover.
Corinne Bednarik earned the first CAA Player of the Week award with her five-goal, nine-point performance against Binghamton on February 11. The Glenmoore, Pa. native is one of the holdovers from last season and enters 2023 as the active career leader for Drexel in points, goals and assists.
Starting Strong (Part II)
After not seeing the field in game action last year as a freshman, Jenika Cuocco has fully taken the goalkeeping position for the Dragons. She has excelled thus far, making 62 saves on 173 shots against and recording a 9.19 goals against average. Cuocco is currently leading the CAA and is 14th in the NCAA with a 50% save percentage.
Doing Things The Simpson Way
With twelve goals in last three games, Hayleigh Simpson has almost tied her total tallies from last season. Coming into this year, Simpson scored 34 goals in 55 career games. The fifth-year midfielder was awarded the CAA Player of the Week following her six goal performance against Fairfield.
I Won't Back Down
Drexel has shown it is not afraid to challenge itself with the schedule. After facing five ranked opponents last year in its 17- game regular season slate, the Dragons have an equal number of opponents this year who were either in the IWLCA Preseason Top-25 or were receiving votes. Stony Brook is the highest ranked at No. 5, but also on the schedule were No. 6 Stony Brook (April 2), No. 19 Johns Hopkins (March 4) and vote getters Penn State (February 18). The last pre-scheduled ranked opponent matchup is against Temple (April 12). The past two weeks, the Dragons have received votes in the IWLCA poll after upsetting No. 19 Johns Hopkins and battling No. 6 Maryland to a six goal differential.
Scouting Report
Towson enters the game Maryland enters the game 4-3 overall and is coming off a heartbreaking 13-12 loss against No. 25 Penn State on Saturday. Through seven games, three players already have double digit multiple goals for Towson; Milana Zizakovic, Blair Pearre and Lindsey Marshall. Setting the scoring up has been Zizakovic and Lindsey Clarke with nine assists.
Defensively, Kennedy Major leads the way with 14 caused turnovers and 13 ground balls. In goal, is Jo Torres guarding the cage. The junior has garnered a 44.1% save percentage this season on 56 saves and 13 ground balls.
Veteran Sonia LaMonica leads the Tigers in her 13th season as head coach. LaMonica is a 5x CAA Coach of the year and holds a 128-84 record at Towson. The Australian native is an Maryland Alumnus where she was named an All-American and a candidate for the Tewaaraton Trophy.
Clear!
Drexel has done an excellent job of turning defense into offense this season with a clear rate of 85.6 percent. The Dragons were perfect in their first two games of the year, going 13-for-13 against Binghamton before a 22-for-22 performance at Wagner. Conversely, opponents have transitioned the ball at a lesser rate with the DU surrendering clears at a 81.1 percent clip.
Ready...Set...DRAW!
Some things remain the same from year to year and one of those is the Dragons ability to gain possession after a goal by winning the draw. A year ago, DU topped the conference and had three players with 80 or more draw controls including Corinne Bednarik (95) and Maura Cissel (81).
The Colonial Athletic Association lost one member from its women's lacrosse schools, but gained two more, all while improving its overall level of quality. James Madison departed the conference at the end of last season. Entering in its place are Stony Brook and Monmouth. SBU has been a national power for the better part of a decade, earning a bid to eight consecutive NCAA tournaments and making three straight appearances in the national quarterfinals. The Hawks, meanwhile, have four NCAA tournament appearances in their history and have won conference regular season titles in the MAAC in 2019 and 2022.
Conference Champions
The last two seasons have seen an unprecedented level of success for the Dragons who advanced to the NCAA tournament for the first times in program history. Coming along with that was a victory in last season's CAA tournament, the first CAA title for the Drexel in women's lacrosse. It was the first championship ever in the 40-year history of Drexel women's lacrosse, which didn't advance to a conference postseason until 2011.
Historical Perspective
Thanks to that success in the past two seasons, the Dragons have won at a clip that has only been seen a handful of times in program history. The four year stretch from 2019-22 (including the pandemic shortened 2020 season), saw DU win 36 games. Drexel has only won that many games three times in a four-year stretch when it claimed 46 wins from 2004-07 and 2005-08 and won 41 games from 2010-13.
Up Next
Drexel next plays on Saturday, March 25 when it hosts William & Mary for Diabetes Awareness Day. Opening draw from Vidas Field in West Philadelphia is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
