Elon, N.C – The Elon lacrosse team (9-7, 5-3 CAA) makes its return to the CAA tournament for the first time since 2021 as the Phoenix faces No. 14 Stony Brook (15-2, 8-0 CAA) in the CAA Tournament semifinals at Stony Brook on Thursday at 12:00 p.m.
Elon enters the contest on a four-game winning streak. The Phoenix is undefeated (9-0) when scoring 12 or more goals in 2024.
HOW TO FOLLOW
- Live stats are available by CLICKING HERE
- The game will be broadcasted for free on LacrosseTV. To watch Saturday's game, please CLICK HERE
- Follow the official social media accounts of Elon Lacrosse:
- Twitter - @ElonWLax
- Instagram - @ElonWLax
WIN AND IN
- Four of the nine teams in the CAA qualified for the CAA Tournament May 2 and 4 at Stony Brook.
- Stony Brook (8-0), Drexel (7-1) and Hofstra (6-2) all clinched spots in the conference tournament fairly early, but the fourth spot came down to the final weekend of the regular season between Elon and Towson.
- The Phoenix and Tigers went into the final week of the season with a 4-3 record in conference play.
- How close were the two teams matched? The game was tied 3-3 after one quarter, 4-4 at halftime, 8-8 after three, and 11-11 after regulation.
- Elon won the opening draw of overtime and Mia Zebley recorded her fifth assist of the game on the first possession, feeding Sammy Fisher for the game-winning and tournament-clinching goal.
ABOUT STONY BROOK
- Stony Brook is 15-2 on the season, with both of those losses coming to top 15 teams Johns Hopkins and Denver.
- The Seawolves went 15-4 a year ago, including a perfect 7-0 record in Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) play. Last season was Stony Brook's first season in the CAA. They also won the conference tournament in their inaugural season.
- Stony Brook was picked as the favorites in the CAA Preseason Poll for the 2024 season.
- As a team, the Seawolves rank among the top 10 teams in the country in scoring offense, scoring defense, assists per game, shots per game, and points per game. One area of struggle for Stony Brook has been free positions, where they are only converting on 39.8 percent of their attempts.
- Ellie Masera is one of the nation's best scorers, averaging 4.20 goals per game, which is good for sixth in the country. Her 7.47 shots on goal per game rank first nationally and her 6.20 points per game are second in the country.
- Head Coach Joe Spallina is 205-40 since taking over at Stony Brook for the 2012 season. He has led the program to four appearances in the NCAA quarterfinals, including each of the last two seasons. Prior to his time at Stony Brook, he went 73-2 in four seasons at Adelphi, winning three NCAA Division II National Championships.
SERIES HISTORY
- Elon and Stony Brook are meeting for the third time ever and second time this season with the Seawolves leading the series 2-0.
- The two programs faced each other earlier this season at Stony Brook with the Seawolves coming away with an 18-6 win after a tightly contested first half.
- That contest was tied 3-3 after one period of play, but Stony Brook scored five goals in each of the last three periods to pull away.
THE DEEPER DIVE
- Let's take a deeper look at Elon's win over Towson to clinch a spot into the CAA Tournament.
- Mia Zebley tied the program record with her fifth assist of the game on Sammy Fisher's game-winning goal in overtime. She had a career-high seven points in the contest, scoring a pair of goals as well.
- Towson's largest lead came after scoring the first three goals of the game and Elon's largest lead was a two-goal cushion at 6-4 midway through the third.
- Fisher and Cierra Hopson each had a hat trick in the game. It was Fisher's fourth straight game with at least three goals, just one game shy of the program record for consecutive games with a hat trick. It was Hopson's fourth hat trick of the season but first since March 16 against Monmouth.
- Zebley's five assists tied the program record. Mae McGlynn had five assists against Radford in 2021 and Hopson had five against Coastal Carolina in 2023. Zebley now has 11 assists on the season, second-most by a freshman in Elon program history (Sloane Kessler had 22 in 2014).
- Elon's nine assists as a team are tied for the third-most in a single-game in program history. The school record is 12, set against Radford in 2021.
- Bridget Kelly led Elon with a career-high four ground balls. Fisher, Mikaela Buoscio and Reagan Kuehn each added three.
- Kelly, Fisher and Kuehn had two caused turnovers apiece.
- MJ Santa Barbara led Elon with seven draw controls, while Kailee Follette added five. Elon held a 16-11 advantage on the draw.
- This was Elon's first overtime game of the season and the Phoenix had not won an overtime contest since beating Towson 10-9 in the 2017 CAA Tournament at Towson. Elon had not won an overtime contest in which it won the opening draw and scored on the ensuing possession since beating No. 19 Virginia Tech 13-12 earlier in the 2017 season.
- Elon improved to 9-0 on the season when scoring 12 or more goals in a game.
- Elon qualified for the CAA Tournament for the first time since 2021. The Phoenix made a tremendous improvement this year with a 5-3 CAA record after winning just one conference game between the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
MJ IN THE DC
- Freshman MJ Santa Barbara made an immediate impact for Elon in the draw circle in 2024 and for that she was named CAA Rookie of the Year, First Team All-CAA and CAA All-Rookie Team.
- Santa Barbara is averaging 9.06 draw controls per game, most in the CAA.
- Elon holds a .619 win percentage in draws through the first twelve games of 2024, among the top 10 in the country. A year ago, the Phoenix had just a .451 win percentage and Elon has not been above 50 percent since 2021 (.523). Elon's best single-season draw record came in the COVID-shortened 2020 season when the Phoenix had a win rate of .620.
- Santa Barbara broke the CAA single-season draws record in just 14 games. She enters Thursday's contest with a program-record 145 draw controls in 16 games.
- With Santa Barbara's excellence in the draw circle, Elon has been +10 or better on the draw six times, including Old Dominion (19-6), East Carolina (22-5), Monmouth (24-9), Hofstra (19-8), Campbell (21-10), and William & Mary (23-8).
BALANCED OFFENSE
A DOZEN IS ALL IT TAKES
- Elon has been unbeatable when scoring at least 12 goals on the season. The Phoenix is 9-0 when scoring 12+ goals this year and 0-7 when failing to reach that total.
- In the team's most recent contest, it took all 12 of those goals as the Phoenix scored its 12th in overtime for the 12-11 win over Towson.
RECORD WATCHING
- Even with MJ Santa Barbara shattering the single-season program record with 115 draw controls as well as the single-game record with 15 against Monmouth, Elon has some more program records in sight.
- Elon's .886 team clear percentage is within reach to break the program record of .889 in a season, set in 2020.
- Elon's .619 win percentage in the draw circle is within sight of the program record .620 win percentage from 2020.
- Reagan Kuehn has 23 caused turnovers in 2024, second-most by a freshman in program history. She is on pace to challenge the program record for a freshman of 24 set by Rachel Ramirez in 2014.
ELON AMONG THE CAA LEADERS
Listed below are Elon's ranks within the CAA heading into the conference tournament:
TEAM RANKINGS (TOP THREE)
- Draw Controls - 1. Elon 17.06/game
- Women-Up Goals - 2. Elon 2.13/game
- Shots - 3. Elon 28.88/game
INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS (TOP FIVE)
ELON AMONG THE NCAA LEADERS
Listed below are Elon's ranks within the NCAA through the regular season:
TEAM RANKINGS (TOP 25)
- Draw Control Percentage - 6. Elon .619
- Draw Controls/Game - 13. Elon 17.13
- Fouls/Game - 13. Elon 9.53
INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS (TOP 25)
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