Pirates Prep For No. 10 Florida

Game 11: East Carolina (3-7, 1-3 AAC) at No. 10 Florida (7-2, 4-0 AAC)
Date	Thursday, April 1
Time	4 p.m. (EDT)
Location	Gainseville, Fla. (Donald R. Dizney Stadium)
Coverage	Live Stats
Social Media	Twitter: @eculax Instagram: @eculax Facebook: ECU Lacrosse

Game 11: East Carolina (3-7, 1-3 AAC) at No. 10 Florida (7-2, 4-0 AAC)
Date	Saturday, April 3
Time	12 p.m. (EDT)
Location	Gainseville, Fla. (Donald R. Dizney Stadium)
Coverage	Live Stats
Social Media	Twitter: @eculax Instagram: @eculax Facebook: ECU Lacrosse

GREENVILLE, N.C. – Coming off a sweep at the hands of Vanderbilt, the East Carolina lacrosse team will once again be tested as the Pirates take on No. 10 Florida in a pair of games.

ECU (3-7, 1-3 AAC) hung tough in a pair of games with first-place Vanderbilt, but could not pull out the victory in either of them last weekend. Megan Pallozzi leads the Pirates in scoring, with 25 goals and four assists. The senior attacker had four goals on Sunday, including recording her 100th career point to become the second Pirate to reach the century mark. Despite missing a pair of games, Megan Tryniski leads ECU with 12 assists while also scoring 15 goals. Frances Kimel is coming off a six-goal weekend against the Commodores that earned her a spot on the AAC Weekly Honor Roll and has 25 points on 17 goals and eight assists. Nicole LeGar the fourth Pirate with at least 20 points this season, having racked up 15 goals and seven assists while also adding a team-high 40 draw controls. That quartet combined for 21 of ECU's 24 goals this past weekend.

On the defensive end, Ashley Vernon continues to be one of the top goalkeepers in the country in her sophomore campaign. Vernon racked up 27 saves in a pair of games against Vanderbilt, including a career-high 15 on Friday, and now has 97 stops on the season. That places the Medford, N.J., native second in the nation in total saves. In front of Vernon, Liz Blumthal has lived up to her Preseason AAC All-Conference selection, causing a team-high 11 turnovers and grabbing 18 ground balls. She also contributed at the draw circle this past weekend, grabbing six draw controls in a pair of games. Along with Blumthal, LeGar, Alexandra Giacolone and Cece Bartley have done a good job of turning opponents over, causing eight turnovers apiece.

Florida (7-2, 4-0 AAC) has opened its conference slate with four straight wins, a pair at No. 25 Temple followed by a pair of double-digit wins over Cincinnati. The Gators' two losses have come to No. 1 North Carolina and to current No. 12 Jacksonville. As a team, Florida leads the AAC and is fourth in the country in scoring defense, allowing just 7.67 goals per game. The Gators are also in the top-10 of the country in turnovers per game (11.78), save percentage (.541), scoring margin (+7.67) and ground balls per game (21.33). A major part of that defense is Sarah Reznick, who ranks fourth in the nation in goals against average (7.28) and third in save percentage (.564). Shannon Kavanagh is the leading scorer for the Gators, ranking 10th in the NCAA with 32 goals to go along with nine assists. Kavanagh also leads Florida in the draw circle, with 39 draw controls. Grace Haus (21 goals, eight assists) and Brianna Harris (11 goals, 12 assists) are the other two Gators that have cracked 20 points this season. Defensively, Cara Trombetta, Emma Wightman and Kaitlyn Dabkowski have all forced at least 10 turnovers, with Trombetta sitting at 12 caused turnovers and 27 ground balls despite missing a game earlier this season.

It will be the second all-time meeting between Florida and East Carolina. The first came in 2019 with ECU falling 20-10 in Gainseville. ECU fell behind 8-1 in the early going before battling back to cut the deficit to just 13-8 at the halftime break before Florida pulled away in the second half. Brittany Borchers had three points for ECU while LeGar, Camryn Pennypacker and Ally Stanton each scored a pair of goals. It will be the eighth and ninth time that East Carolina comes up against a ranked team, with the Pirates still looking for their first win against a top-25 squad. This season, ECU has fallen to No. 13 Virginia and No. 11 Duke.

The two teams will start their weekend series on Thursday afternoon with that contest starting at 4 p.m. The two-game set will come to a close on Sunday afternoon with a 12 noon first draw.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Cece Bartley

Liz Blumthal

Brittany Borchers

Alexandra Giacolone

Frances Kimel

Nicole LeGar

Megan Pallozzi

Camryn Pennypacker

Ally Stanton

Megan Tryniski

Ashley Vernon

Footer