DeLand, Fla. - The Stetson Lacrosse team opened ASUN play on Saturday afternoon, welcoming the Jacksonville Dolphins to the Athletic Training Center. The Hatters built a lead over the first three quarters of the game, before ultimately falling to the Dolphins 13-11.
Sam King got the scoring started on the day, turning a pass from
Kaitlin Pani into a 1-0 Hatter (3-5, 0-1 ASUN) lead just a minute into the game, but the Dolphins got an answer exactly four minutes later to even things at 1-1. The rest of the first was all Stetson though, with King (on an assist from
Anya Phillips),
Katie Kornacki (
Lexi Bird), Pani (
Sara Freeman), and
Jordyn Humphrey (unassisted) striking to build the Stetson lead to 5-1 after 15:00 minutes of play.
After the teams traded dangerous chances in the first five minutes of the second, Jacksonville(3-6, 1-0 ASUN) would break through first, cutting the Hatter lead to 5-2. Humphrey would feed Pani for her second goal of the day to push it back to a four goal lead at 6-2 in the 8th minute, but the Dolphins struck twice more to send the game to the break with Stetson leading 6-4.
Stetson stormed out of the gate in the second half, with Pani scoring her third goal of the game just one minute in, but Jacksonville got the goal back just 44 seconds later. As with the first period, the answer lit a fire under the Hatter attack, with Stetson scoring four times over the next three and a half minutes.
Georgia Goering (Pani) got the run started in the fifth minute of the period, with Humphrey adding her second goal of the day a minute later. Humphrey assisted Pani's fourth goal 45 seconds after that, before King got an assist from Goering to cap the run with Stetson leading 11-5.
After the Dolphins got one back with five minutes left in the third, they added another with just one second remaining in the period to cut the Hatter lead to 11-7. That goal would shift the momentum, as JU scored eight seconds into the fourth before reeling off five more goals to take a 13-11 lead. The Hatters looked to rally, but an intercepted pass ended the rally attempt with just over a minute to play.
On the day, Stetson was able to put 24 of 32 shots on goal, collecting 11 goals and eight assists. Pani led the way with four goals and two assists, while Humphrey added two and two and King turned in a hat trick.
The Hatters continue their eight-game homestand with a pair of games this week. Stetson will host Brown at 6:00 PM on Monday evening before welcoming Liberty at noon on Friday.
