Rock Hill, S.C. – The Coastal Carolina women's lacrosse team recorded its first-ever win over in-state foe Winthrop in Rock, Hill, S.C., on Saturday afternoon by a score of 12-9. The win improves the Chanticleers record to 2-0 in the 2021 season while the Eagles fall to 1-1.
 
The Chants' Samantha Courtemanche (four goals, two assists) and Lauren Cremen (three goals) finished with a hat trick on the day, while newcomer Kayla Downey tallied two goals and one assist for three points to lead the offensive attack. Winthrop was led by the trio of Lauren Asher, Lauren Morris, and Savanah Paton each with two goals each.
 
On CCU's defensive end, Claire Martell picked up her second career victory while making seven saves and causing three turnovers. Martell was aided on the defense by Emily D'Orsaneo (three caused turnovers, two ground balls) and Anya McSorley (one turnover, one ground ball, and one draw control). The Eagles Kelsey Johnson made 11 saves while allowing 12 goals in the loss. With the two ground balls, D'Orsaneo is now the programs' leader in ground balls with 112 career ground balls. She passed by former teammate Haley Alexander, who finished her career with 110 ground balls.
 
Coastal opened the scoring with Megan Bozzi beating the goalkeeper on a free position shot with 42 seconds expiring off the game clock. Winthrop's Paton answered with the equalizer with 26:40 remaining in the first half. With the game knotted up at 1-1, the Chanticleers opened up a 5-1 lead as Courtemanche (15:59 and 15:05) sandwiched two goals from Cremen and Downey.
 
The Eagles pulled within 5-2 when Asher scored unassisted with 13:38 remaining until the intermission before Coastal would add three more tallies as Cremen found the back of the net for her second goal of the day and Courtemanche would hit for two to push CCU's lead to 8-2 advantage with 2:27 remaining on the game clock.
 
Winthrop closed out the first half scoring at 8-3, with an unassisted Morris goal with 1:29 left until halftime.
 
The Eagles battled back to make it 8-5 with back-to-back goals from Alyssa Angelo and McKenna Blick to open the second half of action. CCU's Downey stopped the momentum swing with her sixth goal of the season with 25:28 remaining in regulation to push the Chants' lead to 9-5.
 
Winthrop would pull to within two on goals by Morris and Paton with 21:58 left to play. Coastal answered each of the Eagles' final two goals to give the final three-goal margin as Abbey Buchanan (19:03) and Megan Busch (12:46) tallied their first goals of the year while Cremen (4:00) wrapped up the scoring for the 12-9 score.
 
Coastal Carolina returns to action on Saturday, Feb. 27 as they will host former ASUN foe Kennesaw State at Brooks Stadium in Conway. The opening draw is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET.
For complete coverage of CCU women's lacrosse, follow the Chants on social media @CoastalWLax (Twitter), facebook.com/CCUChanticleers (Facebook), @GoCCUSports (Instagram) or visit the official home of Coastal Carolina Athletics at goccusports.com.