Wheeling, W. Va. - before Saturday's game, Wheeling Women's Lacrosse seniors Sarah Artzer, Paige Jankowski, and Maisy Latus for honored as part of senior day ceremonies. The trio would end up leading the way on the field as the Cardinals took down West Virginia Wesleyan 23-4 at Bishop Schmitt Field. In total, eight different Cardinals would score goals with four of those finishing with hat tricks in the win.
Leading the way for Wheeling was sophomore Trinity Rose who scored six goals and added one assist in the winning effort. She would be the team's spark plug, scoring four of those six goals as part of a 12-go first quarter effort. After the Cardinals had taken a 1-0 lead, Rose would get on the board for the team's second goal of the day, beginning the big scoring effort. She would add her second and third goal of the night to help the Cardinals build a 7-1 lead, and added her first assist on the eighth goal of the game. By the end of the first quarter, she was already at four goals and one assist and the Cardinals had built a 12-1 lead. She would finish off her scoring with a goal in the second and a goal in the third quarter of the day and by the time her day was done the Cardinals had already built an 8-1 lead.
Senior Maisy Latus would do it all, getting the start in net and making three saves on four shots faced. However, with the lead sitting at 12-1 after one quarter, Head Coach Faith Flanagan would move her to attack and after getting her feet wet in the second quarter she would score her first career goal at the 2:41 mark. She would take a pass from Sophia Cirone and made it a 17-2 game cutting in front of the net to take the shot. In the third quarter, she would add her second goal of the day as Krystiana Lazore Waugh passed her the ball in front of the net and she would make it a 19-2 game. She would complete the hat trick in the Cardinal's final goal of the game as she got the ball to the back of the net unassisted. She became the first goalie in program history with a hat trick, capping off a big senior day.
Paige Jankowski would be the leading scorer for the seniors, scoring five goals and one assist on the day to finish with six points. Like Rose, Jankowski would be a big scorer early for the Cardinals, scoring three of those five goals on the game's first half. The five goals were a season-high for the senior as she helped the Cardinals pick up their fourth conference win of the season. The final senior honoree was Sarah Artzer, who normally plays on defense but pushed up to the offensive side in this one. She would score three points, just missing the hat trick with two goals and three assists in the effort. Artzer's first goal would come at the 3:45 mark of the second quarter and she would follow with an assist on Rose's final goal of the day. Her final goal would come with 13:45 to play on a pass from Lazore Waugh.
The final Cardinal hat trick of the day would come from Jovie Noack, who finished with four goals and four points on the day. She would score the Cardinal's first goal of the day at the 13:12 mark and the Wheeling offense went from there. She would score three of those goals in the first quarter and scored all four goals in the first half. Noack has been a leader for the offense throughout the year and continued that success on senior day. Sophia Cirone, Klara Domachowska, and Julia Daniels would score the final three goals for the Cardinals in the effort. Eight of the 14 Cardinals who participated in the game scored on the day and Head Coach Faith Flanagan got to use everyone on her bench and they all contributed to the winning effort.
Leading the passing game for the Cardinals was Sophia Cirone, who finished with three assists and scored four points on the afternoon. Krystiana Lazore Waugh would be the other Cardinal to finish with multiple assists, putting up two, while Rose, Jankowski, and Artzer each added assists on the day. After Latus moved to offense, Giovanna Perkins would get into net and made 10 saves on 13 shots on net in the effort. On defense, it was Rose who led the way with seven caused turnovers, six groundballs, and nine draw controls on the day. With the win, the Cardinals lowered their magic number to one and set themselves up to clinch an MEC Tournament spot on Wednesday.
The Wheeling University Women's Lacrosse team returns to action on Wednesday, April 16th, when they take on The University of Charleston with opening draw at 4 PM.
