ECU Women's Lacrosse falls to UConn in season finale, 17-7

The season came to an end for the ECU women’s lacrosse team when the Pirates fell to visiting Connecticut 17-7 on Saturday afternoon inside Johnson Stadium.

ECU (5-12, 0-5 AAC) finishes the season with a three-win improvement from its 2018 inaugural season. Connecticut (3-14, 1-4 AAC) closes its season by earning its first American Athletic Conference win.

Most of the first half was dominated by the Huskies. UConn opened the scoring when Caitlin Leary scored at 25:52, but Emma Bowman answered at 23:53.

After Bowman’s goal, Connecticut grabbed a tight hold of the game. The Huskies scored six straight goals, with five different scorers getting on the scoreboard.

It was Bowman who once again scored for ECU to finally end the Connecticut run. The junior scored on a free-position goal at 14:06. The Pirates added a second straight goal when Brittany Borchers found Hannah Rzempoluch, with the freshman midfielder burying her shot.

But the ECU momentum stalled as the Pirates could not score for the rest of the half. The Huskies though, grabbed the final three goals of the half, with three more players scoring for UConn. That made it 10-3 at the half in favor of Connecticut.

The second half started well for ECU, with Ally Stanton scoring off another nice pass from Borchers just 32 seconds into the period. However, ECU went on another long scoreless streak after that while Connecticut rattled off seven straight goals. Caitlyn Leary and Lia LaPrise both completed hat tricks for the Huskies during the run.

Trailing 17-4, the game looked out of reach for ECU, but the Pirates did not quit. The Huskie run came to an end when Nicole LeGar bounced in a free position shot with 15:02 remaining. With 11:30 left, Bowman completed a hat trick of her own when she beat two defenders and scored on an unassisted effort. The Pirates made it three straight goals when Stanton scored her second goal of the game, this one of a pass from Megan Tryniski. Stanton’s goal, which came with 7:49 left, proved to be the final goal of the game though as the Huskies closed out a 17-7 win.

Connecticut held a 34-19 edge in shots, a 20-14 lead in ground balls and a 16-10 advantage in the draw circle.

For ECU, Bowman had the three goals, while Stanton and Borchers had two goals and two assists, respectively. LeGar had three draw controls while Camryn Pennypacker and Liz Blumthal each had two of their own.

On the defensive end, Christina White made 10 saves in the cage for the Pirates and also scooped up four ground balls. Hannah Melton caused a team-high two turnovers with Sam Caputo, LeGar and Blumthal also each forcing one UConn miscue.