Despite Stetson's late surge, ASU women's lacrosse completed its opening road trip with another victory, pulling away with a 15-13 over the Hatters and improving to 2-0 on the season so far.
Freshman attacker Taylor Carson got the Sun Devils on the board early in the first half. ASU extended its advantage when freshman attacker Graci Fulkerson caught a behind-the-back pass from freshman midfielder Kylie Kroeger and found the back of the net for a 2-0 lead.
The Sun Devils dominated draw controls and jumped out to a 5-0 lead. This run was highlighted by a first-half hat trick from Fulkerson, who scored three goals in the first seven minutes of the game.
Sophomore midfielder Karli McGuire ended the Hatters' scoring drought with two consecutive goals after ASU went man-down with 17:15 left in the first half.
The next three goals in the game were all from ASU junior captain attacker Kerri Clayton, bringing the score up to 8-2. Clayton would finish the day with five goals, giving her 12 in the past two games.
Besides hat tricks from Fulkerson and Clayton, the Sun Devils had six different scorers in the first half, including goals from freshman attacker Julia Burns, freshman midfielder Emily Gaglolev and sophomore attacker Carley Adams.
The Sun Devils held an 11-3 lead at halftime.
The Hatters fought back as they went man-up early in the second half. Junior attacker Shelby Lehmann capitalized shooting a backhand goal by the crease. Lehmann finished with five goals.
Both offenses continued to score frequently in the second half.
Clayton found freshman midfielder Maddy Hunter cutting toward the cage, boosting the score to 15-7 with 14:30 remaining in the game.
That was the last time the Sun Devils scored in the game as the Hatters continued to claw their way back. With the score at 15-12, ASU head coach Courtney Martinez Conner subbed in freshman goalkeeper Sophia Thomas with 6:24 remaining. Thomas and Sophomore goalkeeper Berkeley Bonneau combined for eight saves between the pipes.
Stetson finished the game on a 6-0 run but would come up just short of a comeback as ASU secured the victory.
UP NEXT
The Sun Devils will head to San Diego next weekend to face the San Diego State Aztecs Saturday Feb.17 at 2 p.m. MST.
Reach the reporter at nsheehy@asu.edu or follow @nsheehy_nick on Twitter.
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