Pirates Continue Road Trip At Stetson | Eastern NC Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of ECU Sports.



    GREENVILLE, N.C.     After a pair of tough losses to national ranked foes, the East Carolina lacrosse team will try to get back on track as the Pirates travel to Stetson on Monday afternoon.

    East Carolina (4-2) has been unable to keep up with its past two opponents, falling to No. 7 Duke and No. 22 Jacksonville on the road. Despite those setbacks, the Pirates are just one win away from tying the 2020 and 2019 teams for the school record in victories. A bright spot in the two losses has been the play of freshman Leah Bestany. Bestany, who is the back-to-back AAC Rookie of the Week, had her most productive week last week, scoring six goals in the pair of games. Bestany had a career-best four goals at Duke, going 4-of-4 on free-position shots. Bestany added two more goals at Jacksonville. Megan Tryniski was the other Pirate with multiple points in both games, scoring two goals against the Blue Devils and adding two goals and an assist against the Dolphins.

    Tryniski is now tied with Frances Kimel for the team lead in points. Both have 22 points this year, with Tryniski getting there through 14 goals and eight assists while Kimel has 10 goals and 12 assists. Bestany is third on the team, with 12 goals and an assist for 13 points while Nicole LeGar has 12 points on 10 goals and two helpers. LeGar is also the team's lead in draw controls with 30 and Flynn Reed has 20. Caroline Meininger and Alexandra Giacolone each have eight caused turnovers with Giacolone also scooping a team-high 14 ground balls. In the goal, Brynn Knight and Sophie Bandorick have split time. Knight has 33 saves with a .418 save percentage while Bandorick has made 36 stops with a .643 save percentage.

    Stetson (2-2) has won two straight after opening the season with a pair of losses. The Hatters beat Winthrop 15-13 at home before traveling to Presbyterian and leaving with a 16-4 victory. Jessica Duggan leads the team with 10 points on six goals and a team-best four assists. Samantha Paglino is the top scorer for the Hatters, with eight goals on the season. In the draw circle, Molly Kearney leads the way with eight draw controls while Saige Roe and Maria Snee have seven each. Christina Nikolai leads Stetson in both ground balls (eight) and caused turnovers (four). In the cage, Kiera McCarthy and Sydney Heimann have split time, with McCarthy going 2-1 with 13 saves and a .310 save percentage while Heimann has 15 saves and a .455 save percentage. The Hatters have excelled at grabbing loose balls, as they rank 19th in the country with 19.5 ground balls each game. They are also in the top-20 in clearing percentage, succeeding 90.5% of the time.

    It will be the first ever meeting between Stetson and East Carolina. The Pirates will be playing back-to-back games against ASUN opponents, having played Jacksonville on Saturday. East Carolina is now 2-5 all-time against the ASUN, getting a pair of wins against Delaware State, but dropping a pair of games to Jacksonville and Liberty while also losing once to Kennesaw State.