March 31, 2008

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy women's lacrosse team looks to remain unbeaten at home on Tuesday afternoon with a big Patriot League contest against the preseason favorite, American, beginning at 5:00 pm. The Mids are 7-2 overall and 1-1 in league play, but boast a 7-0 record at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. American enters the contest with a 5-6 overall mark, but is atop the league standings with a 3-0 mark.

The game will be streamed online as part of the Navy All-Access package available at www.navysports.com. Joe Miller will handle the call from Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. To sign in or subscribe to Navy All-Access, fans can go to www.navysports.com and click on the All-Access button on the right side of the page.

The Mids are coming off a disappointing 15-10 loss at Davidson on Saturday. The Mids fell behind 10-3 at the half, but played much better in the second half to make a game of it. However, Navy's struggles continued on the road, as it dropped to 0-2 away from Annapolis and has now lost two of its last three games overall.

Navy continues to rank high in several categories on the NCAA leaderboard. The Mids are third nationally in scoring offense (16.56), third in scoring margin (+7.22) and second in draw controls per game (16.44). Overall, the Mids are in the top 20 of seven different NCAA categories.

The Mids are paced by a pair of midfielders in sophomore Erin Rawlick and freshman Meg Decker. Rawlick leads the team with 36 goals and 48 points and is second on the team with 12 assists. She scored a school-record nine points (7 g, 2 a) last Tuesday in a 15-12 win over Canisius, a total that ranks as the third-most points in a game in the country this season. She is the league leader in points per game (5.22) in the Patriot League and ranks fourth nationally. She is tied for the league lead in goals per game (4.00) and is fourth in the nation in that category as well.

Decker, meanwhile, has contributed 40 points (30 g, 10 a), and scored 10 points in two contests last week. She is third in the Patriot League and 18th nationally in goals per game (3.33) and is fifth in the league in points per game (4.44). She is the third-highest scoring freshman in the country and just two freshmen nationally have scored more goals than her.

In addition, Amanda Towey, Mary Ruttum and Katrina Nietsch have each scored at least 22 points during the season. The group of Rawlick, Decker, Towey, Ruttum and Nietsch have scored 116 of Navy's 149 goals this year and 168 of Navy's 208 points.

In goal, Natalie Blandon has had an up-and-down season so far. She stopped a career-high 14 shots in a win last week against Canisius, then struggled against Davidson, stopping just six shots and giving up 13 goals. She owns a 9.59 GAA with a .433 save percentage.

American, the preseason favorite to win the Patriot League, is 5-6 overall and 3-0 in league play and is coming off a 14-12 loss at Stoby Brook on Saturday. The Eagles have lost two games in a row, a stretch that was preceded by four wins in a row. The Eagles have defeated Bucknell, Lehigh and Lafayette in league play. Defense is the Eagles' specialty as Kristine Vida has been spectacular in goal for American. She has been named the Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Week three times and owns a .519 save percentage and a 10.83 GAA. She is aided by Caitlin Bell, who was the preseason selection for Defensive Player of the Year.

Offensively, American's Jackie Lane lead the team with 39 points (28 g, 11 a) and three other players have each scored at least 10 goals. Lauren Lane leads the team with nine assists. American is averaging 9.63 goals per game as a team, while giving up 10.73.

This will be the first meeting between the two teams.

Navy will be in action next on Saturday, with a 12:00 start at Lehigh. The Mids' next home action will be on Tuesday, April 9, for a 4:00 pm start against Howard.

# GO NAVY #