Posted: Mar 28, 2009
SALEM, Va. --- Roanoke defeated #12 Washington & Lee, 12-8 at Kerr Stadium Saturday afternoon in the ODAC home-opener. The win improved the Maroons to 7-4, 4-0 in the ODAC while the Generals dropped to 6-4, 3-1 in the ODAC.
Roanoke, which received votes in this weeks' UWLCA Top-20 poll for the third-straight week, is 13-21 all-time against the Generals and broke a 15-game series skid. It was the first win since the 1999 season and the most goals scored in the series since 1994.
For the Generals, who lost their first ODAC contest since 2004, had 14 turnovers and were outshot 26-24 as Roanoke won the groundball battle, 41-29. W&L was 1-for-6 on free position shots.
Washington & Lee struck first in the opening minute of the game as Kelsi Robinson scored off Colleen Evans assist to make it look as they had set the tone early in the contest.
Roanoke had different ideas as Gina Valles and Brooks Laufman scored the next two goals of the game to take the lead, 2-1.
Both teams countered with goals back and forth the rest of the first half but the Generals tied the contest at 5-5 with 24-seconds left before halftime as Emmy Matthews found the back of the net.
Roanoke, which has struggled lately coming out the gate in the second half this season, took the lead for good three minutes into the second stanza as Carolyn Miller found Laufman to take a 6-5 lead. Paige Mason and Valles followed with unassisted goals to grab the biggest lead of the game at that point, 8-5 with 20 minutes remaining.
W&L didn't panic as Kate Donnelly scored off a free position shot and Evans scored off an assist from Britten Matthews to close to within one, 8-7 with 14:17 remaining.
Valles took over from there, scoring three of the next four Maroon goals to go up 12-7 and eventually seal the monumental win. Miller scored the last Roanoke goals with just over two minutes remaining to help RC score the most goals against the Generals in 15 years.
Mason became the third player this season to eclipse 100 career points with her one goal, two assists performance. She was the 28th individual to do so and moved into 27th on the list with 102 career points. Her 47 career caused turnovers are ranked fourth all-time and needs only three more to move into third.
Brooks Laufman's three points (2g, 1a) moved her up to 22nd on the career scoring list (121). She is seventh all-time in career shots with 251. Gina Valles finished with a career-high seven goals along with four groundballs and two caused turnovers. She became 10th all-time in draw controls (67) and moved up to 20th on the all-time scoring list at Roanoke (124). She needs eight more shots to become 10th all-time in that category.
Alida Haslett collected five groundballs and had two caused turnovers to help lead the Maroons to their historic win. She now has over 100 career groundballs with 106. Her 54 career caused turnovers are ranked second all-time behind her teammate Bianca Catta-Preta who holds the record with 69.
Carolyn Clark finished with four groundballs along with one caused turnover which ranks her eighth all-time in career caused turnovers with 31. Katlyn Scarlett had eight saves in goal for the Maroons and now has 628 saves for her career, ranked third all-time.
Meeghan Rourke had an assist to go along with a team-high five groundballs. She also won two draw controls. Cristen Sanfilippo had four groundballs in the win.
Robinson finished with two goals, one assist, 11 groundballs, four draw controls and three caused turnovers to lead the Generals. Evans finished with two goals, one assist and two groundballs. Julia Gotwald collected four groundballs while Katherine Farrer had nine saves in defeat.
The women will host Greensboro in non-conference action on Wednesday, April 1 at Kerr Stadium. The Maroons hold a 4-1 series lead over the Pride, including winning the last three meetings by a combined score of 52-17. Game time is scheduled for 7 p.m.
You can access top stories, scores, updated stats and more. Also make sure to sign up for e-scores for the latest Roanoke athletic updates sent right to you phone. You can sign-up on the school's athletic home page on the left side. Just simply click on the e-scores icon. To keep up to date with Maroon athletics from your mobile phone or PDA, please visit m.roanoke.edu/sports.
