Pirates Come Up Short Against Jacksonville

Saturday, March 6

Greenville, N.C.

12:00 P.M.

East Carolina University

2-4

Jacksonville

2-0

Jacksonville

ECU

Photo by: Houston McCullough

March 06, 2021 | Lacrosse

Box Score Box Score

GREENVILLE, N.C. – In a physical game that saw the two teams combine for 35 fouls and 10 yellow cards, the ECU lacrosse team fell to visiting Jacksonville 12-9 on Sunday afternoon in Johnson Stadium.

ECU finishes the nonconference portion of its schedule with a 2-4 record while Jacksonville improves to 2-0 on the season.

For the second straight game, ECU jumped out to an early lead. Just 63 seconds into the game, France Kimel found Nicole LeGar for the game's opening goal. LeGar turned provider on the next possession when she set up Megan Tryniski for a goal.

Jacksonville fought back to gain control of the game by rattling off a 4-0 run. Alyssa Arnold was a major piece of that, scoring two of those four goals with Sarah Elms and Jenny Kinsey also adding one each.

ECU cut the 4-2 deficit in half at the 17:04 mark when Tryniski found Kimel all alone in front of the Jacksonville goal and Kimel buried it for the goal. However, that was the last score for over 11 minutes until Arnold finally scored a man-up goal at the 6:01 mark. The defensive struggle continued for the remainder of the half as neither team could add a goal, making it 5-3 at the halftime break.

East Carolina came out of the halftime break with some fire. Megan Pallozzi opened the second half scoring when she grabbed a goal off a pass from Tryniski. Just 25 seconds later, Tryniski collected another assist, this time setting up LeGar for the goal.

Jacksonville answered that Pirate run with back-to-back goals of its own, the second coming on another man-advantage opportunity. ECU took advantage of its own numbers advantage just a minute later when Pallozzi scored, with Kimel picking up the assist.

Arnold once again became the engine that drove the Dolphins forward, as she assisted Kinsey and then scored odd a pass from Kasey Stevens to give Jacksonville its biggest lead of the game, at 9-6 with 18:58 remaining.

The two teams traded goals over the next two minutes. Pallozzi completed her hat trick, scoring on a rocket shot after a good feed from LeGar but Elms answered for Jacksonville.

ECU finally got some momentum going when Liz Wilson scored an individual goal followed by the Kimel to Pallozzi connection striking for the second time. That made it 10-9 in favor of Jacksonville and prompted a Dolphin timeout.

Jacksonville made a change following that timeout and it proved pivotal. The Dolphins brought in goalkeeper Dayna Martinetto and the change sparked the team. ECU had three shots to tie the game, including one from the eight-meter arc, but Martinetto made stops on all three. On the other end, ECU's goalkeeper, Ashley Vernon, was matching Martinetto, making a stop of her own on a free-position shot.

But it was Arnold who got the most critical goal of the game. Her tally with 7:26 to go made it 11-9 in favor of Jacksonville. The Dolphins added an insurance goal at 3:11 while ECU saw its final two shots saved by Martinetto.

Pallozzi finished with four goals to lead ECU, while LeGar (two goals, two assists), Tryniski (one goal, three assists) and Kimel (one goal, three assists) all had four points as well. Arnold finished with five goals and an assist for Jacksonville with Elms and Kinsey each adding three points.

Vernon made 12 saves in goal for ECU while Addy Tysdal and Martinetto each had five stops for Jacksonville. LeGar and Camryn Pennypacker led ECU with four draw controls each while Liz Blumthal and Ellie Bromley each forced three turnovers. Blumthal had a team-high four ground balls as well.

The Pirates will have a bye weekend before preparing to start AAC play. East Carolina will open its conference schedule at Old Dominion, taking on the Monarchs on March 19 and 21.