DAVIDSON, N.C. – The Coastal Carolina women's lacrosse team opened up the Rachel Shuck Whitten era and the 2022 season with a hard-fought 13-8 road loss at Davidson on Saturday afternoon in Davidson, N.C.
 
The loss drops CCU to 0-1 to start the season, while the Wildcats improved to 2-0 on the year with the home win.
 
The Chanticleers outshot the Wildcats 28-26 for the match, including putting 18 shots on goal. However, Davidson tallied 19 shots on frame in the win.
 
Davidson also held the advantage in saves at 10-6 and in grounds balls at 22-18. Both teams won 12 draw controls for the contest.
 
Leading the way for the Coastal offense was redshirt junior Lauren Cremen with a team-high three goals on seven shot attempts, while both junior Abi George and sophomore Avery McIlwaine added two goals apiece. Newcomer Devin Rybacki tallied her first career goal in the loss.
 
Redshirt sophomore Kayla Downey passed out a team-leading three assists, while transfer Hannah Demis added two helpers and McIlwaine tallied one.
 
Defensively, sophomore goalkeeper Claire Martell registered a total of six saves, two each in each of the first three quarters, while fellow sophomore Monica Manley caused two turnovers for the game.
 
For Davidson, the duo of Gianna New (3) and Julianne Cary (3) combined to score six of the Wildcats' 13 goals, while Erin Cooke added two scores and five other players notched one goal each in the win.
 
Davidson goalkeeper Amanda Monahan made 10 stops in goal to pick up the win.
 
The home team scored first to take a 1-0 lead before Cremen took a pass from Downey at the 10:37 mark to score the first goal for the Chants and tie the match up at 1-1 in the first period.
 
The two teams then traded unassisted goals before a second goal by Carey put the Wildcats in front at 3-2 after the end of the first quarter.
 
Davidson pushed its lead out to 5-2 on two early goals in the first four minutes of the second quarter and held that advantage for most of the quarter until Rybacki notched her first career goal at the 4:01 mark of the second quarter on an assist from Demis.
 
The scoring would pick up over the last four minutes of the first half, as Davidson picked up a goal from Jane DiGregorio to pull back out in front by three at 6-3 only to see the Chants answer with back-to-back scores from Cremen (2:18) and McIlwaine (1:36) in less than a minute to cut the Wildcats' lead to one at 6-5.
 
However, the Wildcats' Cooke snuck in a final first-half goal with just one second left on the game clock to give the home team a 7-5 halftime lead.
 
Coastal again closed the gap to one to start the second half, as Cremen registered her third goal of the match at the 11:35 mark of the third period to put the score at 7-6 in favor of the home team.
 
That would be as close as the visiting Chants would get for the rest of the contest, as the Wildcats scored the next two goals and six of the final eight goals for the final 25 minutes of the game in the loss.
 
CCU's George tallied the final two goals for the Chanticleers, one in the third period (2:10) and the other in the fourth (3:08), as the Wildcats held on for the 13-8 win.
 
The Chanticleers will continue their six-game season-opening road trip at Radford on Friday, Feb. 25, and at Elon on Sunday, Feb. 27.

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 www.GoCCUsports.com.