Lady Flames Lacrosse handily defeats Elon 10-6 Saturday, Feb 23

A rainy Saturday afternoon saw the women’s lacrosse team engineer a five-goal comeback against Elon, powering to a 10-6 victory in a mature second-half performance after trailing for over 43 minutes of the game. 

Though the Flames (3-1) often struggled offensively throughout the first half, scoring their first goal with 1 minute and 35 seconds left in the half, they dominated the second period, outscoring the Elon Phoenix (2-2) 9-1 in a one-sided end to the game. 

Senior midfielder and ASUN Lacrosse Defensive Player of the Week Brianna McCaffrey orchestrated the comeback with four crucial goals throughout the game, scoring both Liberty’s first goal and the winner as the Flames ultimately completed a victory by a comfortable four-goal margin. Building on last week’s narrow loss to Notre Dame, senior attacker Kayla Foster saw a connection between Liberty’s recent mental strength and the experience of older players like McCaffrey. 

“I think, like with Notre Dame earlier, we used (our experience) to come back today, and I think that our team has this mindset that even if we’re down, we’re not out,” Foster said. “I think that it says a lot about our seniors because we’ve been there — we’ve been in those games where we have to figure out a way to pull ourselves out of this, and I think that getting that experience and knowing we can do it is going to help us in the long run.”

In the opening period, similar to last week’s game against Notre Dame, Elon scored three unanswered goals within the first 10 minutes as the Flames struggled to build offensive rhythm. 

Though the Flames had 11 shots on frame to Elon’s six in the first half, Elon goalie Paulina DiFatta made 10 saves, frustrating Liberty’s attackers. With Elon dominating possession for most of the half, Head Coach Kelly Nangle knew that outsmarting DiFatta would be crucial to earning a result. 

“We knew going into it that she’s really a good goalie,” Nangle said. “Sometimes as attackers that’s hard to work through, when you’re getting a lot of good looks and she makes saves, but we knew going into it that we were really going to have to place our shots and move her. But I’m really proud of how they responded because it’s tough when you’re an attacker and you want to score goals and the goalie keeps making saves.” 

Elon’s robust defensive system often restricted the Flames to shots DiFatta could easily save as the Phoenix consistently pushed Liberty’s attackers to the outside, regularly forcing turnovers as the Flames ran out of attacking options. The half ended with Elon ahead 5-1 after McCaffrey scored before halftime.

Recognizing Elon’s defensive strategy, Nangle adjusted the Flames attacking approach at halftime, encouraging her players to cut inside to increase their efficiency. 

“That’s what we talked about at halftime — we wanted to attack inside,” Nangle said. “They (Elon) wanted us to take those low-probability shots, and we were in the first half, but that’s the change we made in the second half. We just wanted them to get inside so they could have a better probability and better-angled shot, and they did that.” 

Liberty’s shift in mentality handed them a goal within 42 seconds of the start of the second half, bringing the Flames to life as they scored three more within the first 10 minutes of the half. As momentum swung in Liberty’s favor, Foster and McCaffrey’s influence grew on the game, with Foster scoring twice as the Flames levelled the score at 6-6. 

Less than a minute later, McCaffrey spun her defender to slam a low shot beneath DiFatta, giving Liberty a lead that they would hold for the rest of the game. 

“We were down against Notre Dame, so it was no different, especially with a team we know we can come back on,” McCaffrey said. “So when we came back in the second half, it was pretty much foot straight down on the pedal. We were going hard, giving everything that we had, and it resulted in the win.” 

The Flames struggled to add to their lead; however, with Liberty goalie Katherine Widrick producing an important save from Elon midfielder Cami Lynch to keep the Flames in front. McCaffrey finally widened Liberty’s advantage about 8 minutes later, driving in a shot off the ground to make the score 8-6 with 7:37 left. 

McCaffrey and junior attacker Jenna Joyal then added two more goals to round off the scoring at 10-6.

Liberty plays against Robert Morris on the road Wednesday, February 27, where they will play their fifth of eight nonconference games before their first ASUN game against Kennesaw State March 16.