ELON – Coming off a road win at VCU, the Elon women's lacrosse team looked to compound momentum Saturday against William & Mary. The Tribe took the lead 3-0 just 11 minutes in. However, with three minutes left in the first quarter, a free position goal from freshman
Lizzie Scalzo became the catalyst for an avalanche of Phoenix domination. Elon went on to score eight unanswered goals throughout the rest of the game to bring home the 9-4 victory.
The Phoenix dominated the game offensively. Elon put 22 shots on goal compared to William & Mary's eight. But where Elon was most effective was free position opportunities. The team scored four goals in eight attempts from the free position. Redshirt junior Anna Hackett alluded to the amount of shots taken being the key to the offensive success.
"Offensively, we just have to keep shooting," Hackett said. "We had close to 30 shots today, so we just kept pushing, and kept working together as a team to find the net."
Elon had contributors from all over with six different players scoring the nine goals. The most notable of these scorers was Hackett. Academically a senior, Hackett was one of the six Phoenix players celebrated on Senior Day. Coming into the matchup, she had tallied 98 career points, and was looking to join her teammate Ana Lee Vandiver at 100 to become the eighth player in program history to achieve that mark. For Hackett though, it wasn't about her individual stats, but more about who helped her get to that point.
"In all honesty, it doesn't mean too much to me," Hackett said. "One hundred career points comes from all of your teammates, so this achievement is something that we've all worked together for."
Hackett wasn't the only senior to deliver a milestone against the Tribe, with Penner scoring her first career goal in the third quarter. Penner, who has played in all but one game since 2023 – and started in all but two – had only attempted four shots in her career before Saturday.
Penner has been a foundational defender during her four years in the maroon and gold, and has caused 55 turnovers and picked up 75 ground balls in her career. The sideline erupted in euphoric fashion as the ball hit the back of the net, but for Penner her experience scoring was what she described as "seeing red."
"Absolutely nothing," Penner said. "I don't remember it. I'm going to look back on it later, and it'll be great, but there was so much space because the defense was so spread out that I just decided to go for it."
While this Senior Day game encompassed highlights for both Penner and Hackett's careers, in many ways it was bittersweet. The game also allows for the seniors to reflect on the journey throughout their careers
"It's crazy that it's been four years," Hackett said. "Our senior class is really close. We work really hard, and it shows on the field by the impact we have made. Senior Day to me just caps off the great careers that we've all had here."
"I would say our class has been through a lot of adversity, our class is smaller compared to others, but it just makes us even closer," Penner said.
The Phoenix now rises to a .500 record on the season, standing at 2-2 in conference play and 6-6 overall. Looking ahead to this upcoming weekend, on Friday Elon will travel to Buies Creek to matchup against the Campbell Camels. Sunday, the Phoenix will host the No. 12 Stanford Cardinal.
'Rising Phoenix' is a student-led initiative to cover Elon Athletics. Through innovative content creation and storytelling, Elon University students will have the opportunity to highlight the moments, people and events that make an impact, leveraging the athletic department's various web and social media platforms for distribution. Follow Rising Phoenix on X (@EURisingPhoenix) and Instagram (@elonrisingphoenix). Interested in joining this initiative as a content creator (video, graphics, writing, storytelling, or more)? Contact Sydney Spencer at sspencer9@elon.edu.
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