Posted: Apr 22, 2011
SALEM, Va. --- Gina Valles (South Windsor, CT, Westminster ) had a record-setting night in a 23-10 win over Virginia Wesleyan on Friday evening. The Maroons improved to 9-7 overall, 6-2 in the ODAC, while the Marlins slipped to 8-7, 5-3 in conference play.
Valles, who now has 100 points on the season, broke single-game records in points (14), caused turnovers (7) and tied the school-record in goals with eight. Her 12 groundballs tonight tied the school's groundballs record with 248, which is 16th all-time in NCAA Div. III history. She needs only 16 more to break the conference-record in that category.
The more astounding milestones for Valles is that her 386 career points and 265 goals set new ODAC records following tonight's performance. She enters her final regular season game on Monday ranked among the best in NCAA Div. III history in scoring (6th), goals (16th), draw controls (11th) and caused turnovers (9th).
The Maroons held advantages in shots (38-22), groundballs (30-22) an draw controls (18-15). The defense was stellar tonight, causing 21 Marlin turnovers and broke up 8-of-13 clears. Roanoke was 12-of-16 in its clear attempts.
Virginia Wesleyan took an early 2-1 lead in the first six-minutes of play before Roanoke had three-straight goals to take a 4-2 lead at the 19:28 mark in the first half.
With two players down for Roanoke due to two yellow cards issued, the Marlins scored to put them within one, 4-3 with 17:31 left. But the Maroons responded with four-straight goals, three of which were man-down, to take an 8-3 advantage.
After a Marlin goal from Courtney Williams, Roanoke netted five-straight goals leading into the second half to make it, 12-4. After trading the next four goals, The Maroons pulled away for good as they went on a 7-0 run to pull ahead, 22-6.
Meegan Rourke (Greenwich, CT, Millbrook School) had six points (5g, 1a) with six groundballs and four caused turnovers. The Maroons leader in goals (64) moved into a tie for sixth on the single-season list. Her 66 caused turnovers are now second-most in a season at Roanoke while her 38 caused turnovers this year rank third in that category. With her performance tonight, she moved into 15th on the all-time scoring list (144pts). Her 112 goals are 13th on that list while she moved up to sixth in career draw controls (105) and second in caused turnovers (108).
Kathleen Wager (Lexington, VA, Rockbridge County) scored four goals and added an assist for five points, winning a season-best six draw controls. Carolyn Miller (Clinton, MD, St. Mary's Ryken), who only played in the second half, finished with a goal and three assists to move her into 13th on the career assists list (46).
Natalie Belva led VWC with three goals and two assists for five points, while Williams scored a team-best four goals on the night. Lauren Davis collected a team-high seven groundballs.
Brittany Macknew had 10 saves for Virginia Wesleyan, while Laura Zdziarski (Gainesville, FL, Buchholz) (4-2) finished with four saves in 48-minutes of action in goal.
