Petty, Jones & Leach Combine for 11 Goals on Senior Day in 17-10 Win Over Louisville

Saturday, April 9

Pittsburgh, PA

12:00 PM

Pitt

7-7, 1-6

Louisville

6-8, 1-5

Louisville

Pitt

Petty, Jones & Leach Combine for 11 Goals on Senior Day in 17-10 Win Over Louisville

4/9/2022 3:24:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

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PITTSBURGH – Pitt's graduating players showed out on Senior Day at Highmark Stadium as the Panthers secured the first Atlantic Coast Conference win in program history with a 17-10 win over visiting Louisville. Graduate transfers Paige Petty (5G, 2A) and Chloe Jones (3G, 2A) combined for 12 points, while academic-senior Carlie Leach added three goals and senior Madisyn Kittell delivered four assists in the win.

"We're obviously really proud of the girls," Head Coach Emily Boissonneault said. "We've been fighting for this all year and have gotten really close against other teams so to go out here and win was really important for our mentality and for moving forward as a program to know that we can do it."

The Panthers jumped out to an 8-6 lead at the half and grabbed control of the game with a 4-0 run in the third quarter. Following a Louisville charge to open the fourth quarter, Pitt finished strong behind a pair of Leach goals and some excellent play from a defensive unit led by veterans Paulina DiFatta, Therese Pitman, Allyson Trice and Payton Reed.

Petty posted a season-high seven points against the Cardinals, while Jones had career highs in goals (3) and points (5) to go along with a caeer—best matching two assists. Kittell also set a career high with four assists.

Jones opened the scoring for the Panthers with a full field run after picking up a ground ball. She hit Kittell on the wing and skipped home her 10^th goal of the year off the give-and-go feed 57 seconds into the contest. Jones added her second goal of the day less than a minute later to spot Pitt to an early 2-0 advantage.

Following a Louisville free position goal at the 11:29 mark, freshman Sydney Naylor scored her fifth goal of the season with 9:13 remaining in the quarter as Petty extended her consecutive games with a point streak to 75 with an assist on the play. Petty then countered another free position goal by the Cardinals with her 31^st goal of the year at the 2:14 mark to push the Pitt lead to 4-2.

The Cardinals closed the opening quarter with goals from Allegra Catalano and Paige Richbourg to even the contest after 15 minutes of play.

Pitt opened the second quarter strong with goals by Emily Coughlin at 14:05 and a Maureen McNierney goal off a feed from Petty at the 13:21 mark. Senior Kierin Ratliff-Kailbourne added a finish in traffic off a feed from Kittell with 9:47 left in the quarter to extend the lead to 7-4.

Louisville countered with goals from Kokoro Nakazawa and Catalano before graduate transfer Reilly Reed scored her second goal of the season off a pass from Jones at the 5:18 mark to cap off the first half scoring and give the Panthers an 8-6 advantage at the break.

Pitt, who had struggled in the third quarter in recently, flipped the script Saturday outscoring Louisville 4-0. Petty scored three goals, including a pair off the eight-meter mark, in the quarter, while Leach added a free position goal of her own.

DiFatta came up big for the Panthers in the third quarter posting seven of her game-high 14 saves. She recorded three saves on one sequence during a scrum in front of the cage, had a kick save on a shot to the low right side of the cage and smothered another shot that hit inside post following a deflection.

Jones finished off her hat trick off Kittell's fourth assist of the day just 34 seconds into the fourth quarter to extend Pitt's consecutive goals streak to six. Louisville mounted a charge with four goals in a 2:18 second span as Nicole Perroni's 33^rd goal of the season got the Cardinals to within 13-10 with 10:42 remaining.

Leach countered with back-to-back goals with the second one coming after she scooped up a deflected pass near the top of the eight-meter mark and dodged a pair of defenders and beating the goalie over her left shoulder to complete her hat trick with 7:39 left to play.

Petty, who has now scored a goal in 42 consecutive games, scored on a whipping, underhand finish following a nice feed from Jones over two Louisville defenders to push the lead back to six goals with just over five minutes remaining. Sophomore Kate Elam added an unassisted goal at the 2:37 mark for the final 17-10 margin.

Pitt improves to 7-7 overall and 1-6 in the ACC with the victory, while Louisville is now 6-8 overall and 1-5 in conference play. The Panthers improved to 7-3 on the season at Highmark Stadium.

The Panther seniors combined for 13 goals, eight assists, 12 ground balls, 10 draw controls and nine caused turnovers in the win.

"Two things I've been proud of and we've needed from our thirteen graduates: their leadership and their guidance on how to compete in the ACC," Boissonneault continued. "For them to come together as a group of 13 has been incredible. We get the belief that we can play in the ACC from them. They're a huge reason why we've competed as hard as we have this year."

Pitt returns to action Tuesday, April 12 with a road game at Penn State. The Panthers final ACC regular season match is Saturday, April 16 at Notre Dame.