PITTSBURGH, Pa. - The Robert Morris University women's lacrosse team stayed in the win column Friday afternoon at Joe Walton Stadium, taking down the visiting University of Akron Zips by a final score of 18-4.
The win moves RMU to 2-1 on the year and keeps RMU undefeated at The Joe. An offensive onslaught from RMU saw 11 players record goal and 13 record at least a point. Clio Kerr netted a hat trick and added an assist to pace RMU in scoring with four points.
Keeper Katelyn Miller became the all-time winningest goalie in the history of the program, moving past Kaitlin Pentz '14 with her 34th career victory for the Colonials after a four-save performance in net.
"It's an honor," Miller said. "It takes four years to get there. It's everything that you put in with hard work every day at practice and then it all pays off in the end. It was a great team effort today."
The offensive depth that bolstered the Coloinials a week prior against Kent State continued to be a difference-maker in week three, as RMU posted a whopping 18 goals on the day despite only receiving one goal each from the Gandy Twins.
Despite a relatively light day one the scoresheet by their standards, RMU dominated an Akron team playing just its third game in program history Friday afternoon.
Junior Kelley Flynn got the ball rolling less than three minutes into the opening half, collecting a nice feed from Melanie Gandy behind the net before snapping a quick shot behind Akron keeper Falon Costigan for an early lead.
Gandy made it 2-0 with a shot of her two minutes later off a free-position attempt, one of eight free position shots the Colonials took one the day and one of three they converted.
Kelsey Nelson's first tally of the season minutes later pushed it to 3-0 as RMU started to assert their dominance against the Zips. Two more quick ones from Flynn and Zolis pushed it 5-0 not even eight minutes into the game.
Robert Morris enjoyed a dominant performance in just about every statistical category Friday, however an aggressive defense that caused 12 turnovers and enjoyed a superb 17-7 advantage in draw controls helped RMU generate offense from the back end.
"On defense we wanted to run all of our plays, and I think we did that today," Miller said. "We executed well, but we still think we could've played better so that's something we'll work on this week."
Up 13-0 at the end of the first half, RMU turned to its bench in the second, getting just about everybody some well-needed reps in game action.
Freshman Julia Koterwas became the latest RMU rookie to score her first career goal in a Colonials jersey, beating Abby Lerch from inside the eight-meter arc to make it 17-2. Special teams play also proved to be a major factor once again for RMU, who scored five times up a man.
All in all, six players enjoyed multi-goal performances Friday, including freshman Colleen Tifft, who has now scored in all three games of her still young RMU career.
While Miller was not heavily tested, she did come up with a couple of huge saves in the first half including a near point-blank stop on Kaylee Riggins
"One of the things we've been trying to work on offensively is our transition game, which I think we did today. We didn't have a lot of turnovers in the midfield so it turned out well."
The Colonials return to action next Saturday, February 29 when they host Bucknell in Moon Township to close out their current three-game home stand.
