AVE MARIA, Fla. — The Ave Maria Lacrosse team continued their week of firsts Sunday afternoon as they took down the Lawrence Tech Blue Devils 12-9 in a Top-10 showdown. It is the first ever win in program history over LTU.
The first five minutes of the game were quiet with no goals between the two teams. Both goalies made a stop during that period to keep it a tie game.
The Gyrenes finally opened the scoring just under the 10-minute mark with Alexendra Mazurczak netting a man-up goal. The junior cut right in front of the goal and buried a feed off the stick of Sophie Paige.
Annie Dhabliwala put the Gyrenes on the board again three minutes later with her first goal of the game. Dhabliwala converted on the free position shot to net the strike.
On the following possession, Paige got her first goal of the game with a quick shot to the top shelf that caught the Blue Devil defense off guard.
Lawrence Tech scored their first goal of the game with under three and a half minutes to play in the frame. However, the Gyrenes responded with two more strikes, off the sticks of Dhabliwala and Mazurczak, to take a 5-1 lead after the first 15 minutes.
The Gyrenes kept the pressure up by scoring the first goal of the second quarter. Lily Hynds posted up right in front of the crease, received a feed from Mazurczak, spun around and found twine for her first goal of the game.
Lawrence Tech netted the next two goals to bring the margin back down to three, but that didn't phase the Gyrenes. Ave Maria responded with two straight goals of their own from Mazurczak and Dhabliwala.
The Blue Devils made it 8-4 with their third goal of the quarter and then tried to drain the clock until halftime.
Mazurczak had other plans though as she went coast-to-coast from the 30-yard line of the football field to right in front of the crease and snuck the ball in on the bottom left corner with three seconds left in the half. The play started with a save from keep Francesa Pieniadz who found Mazurczak all alone at the line. After a quick three second draw, the Gyrenes went into the halftime break leading 9-4.
Lawrence Tech came back with a vengeance in the final 30 minutes, but the Gyrenes did just enough to hang on to the win. The Blue Devils outscored Ave Maria by only one goal in each quarter, which was not enough to erase the five-goal lead.
LTU netted the first goal of the half but was immediately responded with another strike from Mazurczak. The Blue Devils then scored two goals in a row to make it a three-goal game, but Mazurczak got her second of the quarter just inside the three-minute mark to end the frame with Ave Maria on top 11-7.
The fourth quarter featured two Lawrence Tech goals sandwiching a strike from Dhabliwala. LTU's final goal came with 1:44 left on the clock. After a draw control win, the Gyrenes drained the final 90 seconds off the clock to secure the victory.
"For the first half, against a really tough Lawrence Tech team, we battled it out and executed the way we wanted to," said head coach Katelyn Sherman. "We knew we were going to get tired towards the end and the heat was going to ramp up, so we wanted to make sure we got ahead early."
Mazurczak led the team with a career-high six goals and one assist for seven points. Three other Gyrenes logged a multi-point game with Paige at four, Dhabliwala at three and Anna Bocchino at two.
In the midfield, Hynds led the team with eight draw controls as the Gyrenes outdrew the Blue Devils 17-5.
Defensively, Madeline Hicks led the team with two caused turnovers.
In goal, Pieniadz stopped seven shots in her fifth win of the season. Five wins in a year are tied for the fourth most in a single season in program history.
With the win, Ave Maria improves to 5-1 overall and 1-1 in Top-10 matchups.
The Gyrenes are back in action Tuesday, March 10, as they take on the NCAA Division III Kean Cougars. The Cougars played a neutral site game on Gyrene Field on Sunday as well, falling to the Keiser Seahawks 20-12. Opening draw is set for 6 p.m. and the game will be streamed live on the Urban Edge Network.
