The East Carolina women’s lacrosse team played its first game ever on Saturday. It will have to wait for another day to earn its first win.
The Pirates got off to a promising start against George Washington, getting early goals from freshmen Casey Sullivan, Ally Stanton and Nicole Legar, but faltered in the second half on the way to an 18-7 loss that spoiled their inaugural party at Johnson Stadium in Greenville.
Sullivan scored the first goal in program history on a free position shot four minutes into the game.
“ In the moment, I wasn’t really thinking about it,” said Sullivan, who finished with three goals and an assist. “I was on the line just thinking this has to go in, this has to go in. It’s something special I think I will carry it with me forever, because that is the first stat in history that will go done in the books.”
Shortly after Sullivan netted her historic goal, teammates Stanton and Legar also notched goals to tie the score at three midway through the first half. But GW scored the next six goals to open a 9-3 lead at halftime.
ECU regrouped at during the break and scored three of the first four goals to start the second half, with Sullivan netting two, to narrow its deficit to 10-6. But again, it couldn’t sustain the momentum.
GW finished the game on a 9-1 run to pull away for the victory. Caitlin Concannon led the Colonials with four goals. Goalie Christina White was credited with 13 saves for the Pirates, who were outshot 37-21 and hurt themselves by committing 16 turnovers.
“We talk about in practice all the time valuing possession, value the ball; value the clear,” ECU coach Amanda Barnes said. “I think that it’s one of those things that when you have a team that hasn’t been out there yet to do it, you don’t know how much it will cost you at the end and I think we learned that lesson today.”
The Pirates will return to action on Friday against Winthrop in Rock Hill, S.C
