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KENNESAW, Ga. – The Kennesaw State women's lacrosse team lapped the Runnin' Bulldogs Saturday afternoon as Siena Gore's six goals paced the Owls in a 17-8 victory over Gardner-Webb to mark the best start in program history.
 
With the win, KSU starts the season 1-1 for the first time since the program's inception. Four Owls netted two goals each with Siena Gore recording six goals on eight shots to fall one goal shy of her career high.
 
How it Happened: The Owls (1-1) and Runnin' Bulldogs (2-3) felt each other out in a slow start to the first period. Izzy Palermo scored KSU's first goal of the game at the 27:41 mark as the two teams traded goals tied 2-2 with 12 minutes left to play.
 
Emily Napierala finally woke the Owls up with a goal to spark a 5-0 run for KSU. Siena Gore logged a hat trick during the run to give the Owls a 7-2 lead with just under three minutes to go. It was a whirlwind three minutes to close out the first period as Gardner-Webb scored three goals, sandwiching yet another goal by Siena Gore, to cut the deficit to 8-5 at halftime.
 
Despite the late flurry, the Owls dominated the first half with Siena Gore recording four of her six goals in the period while Napierala finished with a goal and three assists. KSU was a perfect 10-for-10 on clearance attempts in the opening period while out-drawing GWU 10-4.
 
That momentum carried over into the second half as Siena Gore netted the opening goal followed by a free position goal from Anna Giulitto to put KSU up 10-5 less than three minutes in. After two goals from GWU, the Owls doubled up the Runnin' Bulldogs with a 4-0 run featuring a goal from each Gore sister wrapped around goals from Chesslyn Lamar and Abby Squires to make it 14-7 at the 11:41 mark.
 
Gardner-Webb managed to score one more goal before the final buzzer, but the Owls ended the game on a 3-0 run capped off by sophomore Camryn Klaus' first career goal to seal the victory. KSU out-scored Gardner-Webb 9-3 in the second half, shooting 82 percent for the period.
 
Notes: Siena Gore netted six goals for the fourth time in her career … Emily Napierala's three assists was one shy of her career-high … sophomore Chesslyn Lamar logged her first career assist, adding one goal for a career-high two points … Marissa Gore, Abby Squires, Anna Giulitto and Izzy Palermo all finished with two goals each … Siena Gore led the team with seven draw controls … Alex Bunn logged 10 saves for the second straight game … Maura Palandro recorded a career-high three caused turnovers while leading the team with three ground balls … the Owls finished 18-of-20 on clearance attempts … KSU out-drew GWU 18-9 … the game featured nine yellow cards, six on Gardner-Webb, and a red card for GWU.
 
Quotes: Head Coach Laura Maness
On the first win of the year…
"The first win feels good. We talked to our girls about this, we have never started out 1-1 so this is the best start we've had in program history and that was definitely a motivating factor today."
 
On the slow start…
"We thought we were getting really good looks in the first half, we just weren't putting the shots where we needed to, we had 22 shots in the first half. I think the quality of the shot just wasn't what it needed to be and so we weren't getting points on the board and we needed to make that adjustment. The shots were there, we just weren't burying them."
 
On the game's yellow cards and aggressive play…
"I think it got a little aggressive there and our girls were able to dial it in and focus on playing clean, playing good lacrosse and not getting any yellow cards. After we had three so that we didn't have any non-releasable penalties on defense, that was really good they dialed it in. And then on offense I felt like we took advantage of their non-releasable penalties, I think we had two goals on one card at one point. That allowed us to separate the score and get that lead handedly."
 
Up Next: The Owls look to carry this momentum into next week's showdown with top-ranked Florida Wednesday (Feb. 26) at 11 a.m. in Fifth Third Bank Stadium.

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