WASHINGTON, D.C. - UMBC women's lacrosse jumped out to a 10-2 halftime lead before closing out a 15-5 road win at American on Saturday afternoon. The Retrievers improved to 5-2 on the season as they head into America East Conference play.
Emily Knapp led the offensive attack, scoring four goals and two assists for UMBC.
Knapp extended her season-opening streak of games with three or more goals to seven to start the year. The sophomore now has 29 goals and five assists on the season. In 23 games as a Retriever, Knapp has 16 games with at least three goals and 11 with four or more goals. She also went over 100 points for her career.
Knapp scored three of the Retrievers' first four goals as they built a 4-1 lead with 2:44 left in the first half. Libby Staples found Knapp for the first goal just 1:47 into the game before the duo connected again less than a minute later to send UMBC quickly ahead 2-0.
American responded with a goal from Reagan Murdoch, but Annika Wray, Knapp, and Tess Curtis all scored in the final 5:10 of the first period to give UMBC a 5-1 advantage.
Murdoch scored to open the second quarter for the Eagles, but UMBC held American scoreless for the final 14:39 of the half, getting two goals from Staples, Knapp's fourth of the game, and goals from Reese Macintosh and Emma O'Callaghan.
UMBC added five more second-half goals, as O'Callaghan put home her second of the day to open up the second-half scoring before
Olivia Worden and
Claire Moffitt put their names on the score sheet. Macintosh added her second goal of the game with 11:20 to play in the final quarter off an assist from
Lizzie Bateman before
Sam Hewitt closed out the scoring for the Retrievers with their 15th goal of the game at the 4:29 mark of the fourth.
With two goals and two assists, Staples now sits with 10 goals and 10 assists on the campaign, good for third on the team in goals and second in assists behind Macintosh.
Knapp also got the job done in other areas, totaling five draw controls, two ground balls, and a caused turnover on Saturday.
Ella Killian won four draw controls, picked up two ground balls, and caused two turnovers for UMBC while Worden added three draw controls. Defensively,
Emily Renehan caused a game-high and season-high three turnovers.
Emine Luznar picked up the win with 11 saves, giving her three straight games with double-digit saves.
UMBC will take on Binghamton this weekend to open up America East play.
