Elon beats VCU 12-11 after a 6-1 deficit

Andrew McGhan, Contributing Writer

VCU women’s lacrosse lost to Elon University in the first home game of the season on Friday, Feb. 18.

Lots of VCU fans and alumni came to cheer on the lacrosse team, with some Elon fans making the almost three-hour drive to support their own team.

VCU third-year attacker Mia George said the team was really excited to play in their first home game of the season.

“Our fans gave us a lot of momentum, we flipped a switch,” George said. “It kind of just got us through and scored us a lot of goals and a lot of stops on defense.”

VCU fourth-year midfielder Kelsey McDonnell scored her first goal of the season, giving the Rams a 1-0 lead with 13:55 left in the first quarter, according to Statbroadcast.

A minute later, Elon redshirt first-year attacker Ana Lee Vandiver scored, tying the score 1-1.

At the 12 minute-mark, McDonnell caused an Elon turnover, and VCU began a counterattack which resulted in Elon fouling and giving VCU second-year midfielder Kiley Kozak a free position attempt.

Kozak shot the ball, but Elon second-year goalie Caitlin Walsh saved the shot attempt.

George picked up the ground ball that was fumbled by Walsh and scored, giving VCU a 2-1 lead over Elon. 

This was George’s first goal of the season, according to Statbroadcast.

VCU carried the momentum through the rest of the first quarter, scoring four more goals to bring the score to 6-1 in favor of VCU at the end of the first quarter.  

George, McDonnell, third-year attacker Ashley Karn and first-year midfielder Sam Palmer each scored one of the four goals, according to Statbroadcast.

In the second quarter, Elon came out with lots of intensity and aggression by playing hard defense. 

In the first minute and a half of second quarter play, Elon’s Vandiver scored a goal, cutting the VCU lead to four, according to Statbroadcast.

With newly found momentum Elon went on to score five unanswered goals, according to Statbroadcast. The score was 7-6 in favor of Elon at halftime.

Head coach Nicole Flores said her message to the team was trust, belief and resilience to overcome the adversity they faced in the second half.

“We’ve put in the work, we just have to trust the process and get back to the basics,” Flores said.

The third quarter started with Karn scoring a goal tying the score at 7-7.

VCU carried that momentum over the next four minutes of play and scored twice making the score 9-7 midway through the third quarter.

Second-year midfielder Jamie Lastner and fourth-year midfielder Autumn Kash scored the two goals, according to Statbroadcast.

In the last four minutes, Elon won a clear attempt and went down the field for third-year midfielder Sammy Fisher to score, cutting the VCU lead to one.

Elon then used that momentum to have a free position attempt which was scored by Vandiver in the last two minutes of the third quarter.

The third quarter ended in a 9-9 tie.

At the start of the fourth quarter, Elon went on to score three goals over the next 12 minutes of play.

Fourth-year attacker Bridget Kelly, third-year attacker Kailey McKenna and Vandiver were the three goal scorers, according to Statbroadcast.

With three minutes left in the game, VCU third-year midfielder Casey Murray stole the ball from Elon and passed the ball up to George, who was one-on-one with the Elon goalie, which resulted in a VCU goal.

The score was 12-10, still in Elon’s favor.

The draw control was won by Elon who let the clock wind down to 40 seconds left to try a shot attempt. However, the shot went wide right and gave VCU possession.

Karn came down to receive the ball and proceeded to run past defenders to score a goal, cutting the Elon lead down to one.

Karn said at that moment she was thinking that VCU needed the ball and they needed a goal fast.

“I just saw a lot of space in the midfield to cut up for the ball and then once I caught it my defender was kind of on my back and no one was really sliding to me,” Karn said. “I just kept running, trusting my preparation to practice and kind of just drove it all the way to the goal.”

With 12 seconds left, Elon turned the ball over and VCU called a timeout.

Out of the timeout, the ball was passed in the direction of Karn. When Karn reached for the ball, it bounced off her stick and rolled out of bounds, resulting in Elon winning the game due to the clock running out of time.

“Definitely should have got this win today, but I think we all trust each other and have so much love for each other,” Karn said. “So next game we’ll definitely get a win.”

VCU plays Harvard University at home on Sunday, Feb. 25 at 11:30 a.m..