GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- With their season opener behind them, the Tusculum University women's lacrosse team digs in to its regular-season schedule this week with a pair of contests on the slate. The Pioneers visit North Greenville on Wednesday at 6 p.m., then host Chowan in their home opener on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Pioneer Field.
Tusculum dropped its season opener at Lee last Wednesday by a 19-8 score, the first of three road matches during February for the Pioneers. Tusculum's home game against Chowan on Saturday will be their lone home contest of the month, before playing five of seven matches at home during March.
RECAPPING THE WEEK
Lee defeated Tusculum 19-8 last Wednesday, as the Flames led 12-6 at halftime and outshot the Pioneers by a 37-20 margin. For the Pioneers, Tia Tuininga scored four goals and had an assist, with a goal and an assist from Kylie Marek. Lucy Brewer, Jessica Spiegel and Emily Youngblood also scored for the Pioneers, while Chloe Michalski had an assist along with Marek and Tuininga.
Marek paced the Pioneers with six draw controls, while Youngblood and Brewer had three apiece. Bethany Thomas led the Tusculum defense with a pair of caused turnovers and three ground balls, which matched Brewer for the team lead in ground balls. Caroline Monroe started in goal and made five saves in the first half, while Taylor Floyd had seven in the second half.
PROFILING THE PIONEERS
Tuininga's four goals gave her 40 for her Tusculum career, moving her into 10th place on the program all-time goal list. She has scored at least one goal in 13 of her 14 career matches. The goal for Brewer came in her Tusculum debut and was the first of her collegiate career. Marek's six draw controls were one short of her career high set against Young Harris on Feb. 23, 2020.
Making their collegiate debut against Lee were freshmen Michalski and Kira Spaulding. Michalski started and had an assist, while Spaulding came off the bench for the Pioneers. In addition to Michalski, sophomore Morgan Correia made her first career start on defense against Lee.
The five saves by Monroe are tied for her second-most in a game in her career, behind the 12 stops she made at Newberry on Mar. 7, 2020. Floyd's seven saves at Lee were also the second-most in her career, behind 14 stops against Walsh in her first career match on March 2, 2019.
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
North Greenville (0-2) has faced a pair of SAC opponents to open the season, losing 17-5 to Limestone on Feb. 4 and 20-5 to Wingate on Saturday. Wednesday's match will be the home opener for the Crusaders, who were 2-6 at Pepsi Stadium last spring en route to a 6-8 overall record.
Dani O'Meara leads the Crusaders with five goals, while Emma Mayew had added three goals and one apiece from Meagan Brannen and McCayla Richard. O'Meara, Mayew and Danielle LaPlume share the team lead with four draw controls, and LaPlume is tie for the team lead in ground balls with six along with McKenna Kees.
Kees has started both matches in goal for the Crusaders and has a 26.15 goals against average in 64 minutes, 15 seconds, with 14 saves and 28 goals against. Tori Smith has played the other 55 minutes, 15 seconds and has a 9.69 goals against average with 10 saves on 19 shots on goal (.526 save percentage).
Tusculum is 2-1 all-time against North Greenville, winning 19-3 at home in 2016 and 13-12 at home in 2018. The Crusaders' lone win over the Pioneers was a 16-5 home victory on Feb. 12, 2019.
Chowan will be playing its season opener when the Hawks visit Tusculum on Saturday. The Hawks were slated to host William Peace in their opener last Saturday but that contest was postponed. Chowan went 2-7 last season and finished 2-6 in Conference Carolinas.
The top four scorers for the Hawks last season are all back in 2022, including senior Brooke Woods-Pennell who led the team with 15 goals. Sophomore Grace Taylor and junior Leia Cabradillia had 13 goals apiece, and sophomore Charity Brown netted 10 with a team-high six assists last year.
Brown also led the Hawks with 27 draw controls and 10 caused turnovers, and junior Kyra Jones is also back after collecting 19 ground balls, 12 draw controls and 10 caused turnovers. Sophomore Ariel Johnson was the backup keeper to Mallory Dunker last season and had 10 saves in 99 minutes along with a 15.70 goals against average.
Saturday's game will be the second all-time meeting between the Pioneers and the Hawks. Tusculum beat Chowan 23-11 on Feb. 28, 2015 in a match played at Rocky Top Sports World in Gatlinburg.
FOLLOW THE PIONEERS
Live stats are available for all home Tusculum University women's lacrosse matches. Links to stats and video for home and away matches are posted at tusculumpioneers.com.
