Panthers Roll Past Visiting Akron, 18-6

Monday, March 28

Pittsburgh, PA

5:00 PM

Pitt

6-6

Akron

2-10

Akron

Pitt

Panthers Roll Past Visiting Akron, 18-6

3/28/2022 7:57:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

PITTSBURGH – Pitt recorded a season-best 11 assists en route to a 18-6 win over Akron Monday evening at Highmark Stadium. The attack trio of Carlie Leach, Madisyn Kittell and Paige Petty combined for 13 points on seven goals and six assists as the Panthers improved to 6-1 in non-conference play.

We say every day that we want to get better and better and just being able to contribute to that has been an awesome opportunity," Leach said. "For me, it's more important to have those assists. It's harder for teams to defend when you have more people scoring, so the more assists, the better."

Leach recorded a career-best six points with three goals and three assists, while Kittell added a four-point effort (1G, 3A) and Petty added three goals for her fifth hat trick of the season. Kierin Ratliff-Kailbourne, Ava Washington, Karina Latsko and Devon Cavanaugh also had multi-goal games for Pitt.

The Panthers also had a season-high 17 caused turnovers as Brittany Villhauer (4CT) and Allyson Trice (3CT) combined for seven forced turnovers.

"We played strong defensively tonight and it's nice to see a lot of girls get rotated in on the defensive end without having a drop off," Villhauer said. "We kept up the intensity and composure throughout the game."

Pitt jumped out to a 3-0 lead after 15-minutes of play as Leach, Petty and Ratliff-Kailbourne found the back of the net in the opening quarter. Kittell fed Leach from behind the cage for the first goal at the 10:41 mark before feeding Ratliff-Kailbourne again from behind the cage less than a minute later. Petty extended her point scoring streak to 73 games and her goal scoring streak to 40 games with a goal at the 1:20 mark in the quarter. Leach intercepted a pass from the Akron goalie and fed Petty, who dodged left by a defender before sliding a low shot past the goalie to cap off the first quarter scoring.

Kittell scored off a feed from Chloe Jones at the 12:54 mark for her seventh game with three or more points on the season. Leach continued to add to her stat line with an assist on a Ratliff-Kailbourne goal at 11:33 before converting on a quick change of possession less than a minute later. Following a failed clear by Akron, Kittell fed Leach on right side of the scoring area and the Oregon native worked across the face of goalie before scoring her second goal of the day.

The Panthers extended the lead to 8-0 as Petty scored back-to-back goals with the first one coming on a free position attempt at 9:40. She added a quick stick goal off a pass from Sydney Naylor with 6:03 left in the half.

Akron snapped the Pitt scoring run with a goal from Noelle Boyd with 3:21 left in the second quarter but Rachel Familetti responded with her first career goal at the 2:10 mark as Leach recorded her third assist of the game on the play Pitt entered the halftime break with a 9-1 lead, while outshooting Akron, 19-8, and taking advantage of 17 Zip turnovers.

Pitt recorded assists on eight of its nine first half goals.

Akron struck first in the second half as Boyd scored at the 10:24 mark before Leach completed her hat trick with an unassisted goal at the 8:44 mark. Boyd, a Franklin Regional product, added two more goals in the quarter but the Panthers maintained a nine-goal advantage as Naylor, Devon Cavanaugh and Ava Washington each found the back of the net in the final 3:30 of play in the quarter.

Washington added her second goal to open the scoring in the fourth quarter. Following an Akron goal by Chloe Hererra, Pitt responded with four consecutive goals as Karina Latsko scored twice and Maeve Murray and Cavanaugh also found the back of the net. Akron's Anjali Silverheels scored with six seconds remaining for a final margin of 18-6.

Pitt moves to 6-6 on the season, including a 6-3 mark at Highmark Stadium. The Panthers return to action Saturday, April 2 with an ACC road contest at No. 4 Syracuse (8-2, 4-0 ACC). Akron falls to 2-10 on the season with the loss.

"Syracuse is a really good team," said Villhauer. "We'll have to dial it in at practice, focus on our scout and be ready to come out hard, because they're going to do so as well."