ROCK HILL, SC – The Winthrop lacrosse team will look to complete its unblemished conference season and win the regular season title outright Friday evening when they head on the road to take on the High Point Panthers.
The Eagles are riding a seven-game winning streak and are coming off a convincing 17-6 victory over the previously unbeaten in conference Liberty Flames. The win for Winthrop clinched them at least a share of the regular season title.
Junior Shannon Gallagher had her best game of the season Tuesday afternoon, scoring seven goals and assisting on one other. Freshman Kristen Shriver totaled five assists while juniors Logan McCarthy and Abigail Blevins each tallied three goals. Freshman goalie Alaina Girani made 13 saves in the victory.
Winthrop is currently the top-scoring team in the country, averaging 16 goals per game. The Eagles are second in the NCAA in scoring margin, outscoring their opponents by 8.44 goals per contest.
Girani is currently allowing fewer than four goals per game through six conference contests this season. She ranks 4th in the country in save percentage at .513 and 11th in the NCAA in goals-against average, allowing 7.27 goals per game.
High Point enters Friday's contest with a 6-9 overall record and a 4-2 mark in the Big South. The Panthers have fallen to Coastal Carolina and Liberty in conference and are coming off a 15-6 victory over Longwood on Sunday.
Junior Allie Foard leads the Panthers this season with 31 goals, 19 assists and 50 points. Senior Kendyl Gardner is second on the team with 26 goals. High Point has scored an average of 11.8 goals per game while allowing 10.33 per contest.
Senior Julia Burns has played every minute in goal this season for the Panthers. She has a 10.08 goals against average with a .444 save percentage.
The Eagles have never beaten the Panthers in three meetings over the last two years. Winthrop was eliminated from the conference tournament by High Point last year.
Following Friday's game the Eagles will enter the conference tournament as the top seed. Winthrop will host a quarterfinal game on Tuesday at 2 p.m. with the opponent to be determined.
