CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The East Carolina lacrosse team defeated Queens, 12-8, in their season opener on Saturday afternoon. The four-goal win represented the new largest margin in the program’s series history with the Royals.
The Pirates (1-0) got off to a terrific start in the first quarter of the game, winning all four draw controls and converting for a trio of goals while holding Queens (0-1) scoreless. Bella Askey got the distinguished honor of scoring the first goal of the season and did so just 62 seconds into the game. Jaime Behar got the nod in goal and looked the part in the first, stopping all four shots on goal by the hosts.
ECU went on to win the first six draw controls of the game into the second quarter and dominated in totality on draw controls in the first half with a 10-3 margin. The team did turn the ball over 10 times in the half, all of which came on caused turnovers by Queens. Conversely, the Royals did turn it over eight times themselves with Emma Magazu racking up three of the Pirates’ six first-half caused turnovers in her debut in Purple and Gold. Magazu went on to have a fabulous game with four caused turnovers and five ground balls.
Kayla Wilkes had a phenomenal game scoring in her first game back since a knee injury cost her most of the 2024 season and got off to a scorching start. She scored her fourth goal of the game at the 4:47 mark of the game after having a recorded a hat trick in under 23 minutes of game time. This was the fastest to four goals for the Pirates since the program’s all-time leading scorer, Frances Kimel, scored her fourth goal at the 7:34 mark of the second in a win over George Mason on Feb. 18, 2023.
Wilkes finished the day with a game-high five goals.
Despite the hot start for ECU, the game became a bout of tug-of-war in the second quarter with the lead bouncing back and forth between one and two goals as Queens took a 5-3 margin in the period to make it a tight ballgame going into the halftime break. ASUN Preseason Player of the Year Kayleen Favreau had a hat trick in the quarter to pace the Royals. She finished the game with four goals and three ground balls.
A player-up goal by Emily Stratton in the third quarter, however, pushed the Pirates’ lead up to four, the largest of the game and forced a Queens timeout with just over 20 minutes to play in the game. The ECU run would go to 5-0 spanning across the third and fourth before the hosts finally made a stop to it, but by that time the damage was done, and the Pirates had doubled up the score at 11-5.
Queens did well to make a run at it down the stretch, scoring three of the game’s final four goals, but the Pirates held tough. Jaime Behar finished out her day with eight saves for an even .500 save percentage while getting good help from her field players with Magazu’s statistical excellence being joined by Caroline Menninger’s four caused turnovers and three ground balls.
The group finished the game with a 14-9 margin on the draw or a percentage of .608 after finishing second-to-last nationally in the category a season ago. It was a welcome sign and one which, if it continues, could be a harbinger of better results to come. Sophomore Grace McCarthy led that charge with seven draw controls of her own, a career high.
With the win, the Pirates have now won five consecutive season openers and are 6-2 in openers overall since the inaugural season in 2018.
Up Next
The Pirates remain on the road for a 1 p.m. date with the Elon Phoenix on Saturday.