Bloomington, Ill. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse lacrosse team won its first game of the 2025 campaign with a 16-4 victory over Illinois Wesleyan University on Thursday afternoon at Tucci Stadium. The Eagles improve to 1-2 on the season while the Titans fall to 3-2.
Nick Anagnostis earned his first career
win at UWL.
It is the first UWL win for first-year head coach Nick Angnostis. He came to UWL ater serving as a volunteer assistant women's lacrosse coach at Winthrop University (S.C.) in 2023-24.
UWL scored the first nine goals of the game on Thursday.
Megan Feeney scored on an assist by
Ava Schiltz to get the scoring started with 13:16 left in the first quarter. The Eagles' Evie Bri;z scored with 5:04 left in the first quarter to make it 4-0. With 1:15 left in the first period,
Megan Maloney scored to make it 7-0 after the opening quarter.
To start off the second quarter, UWL scored goals from Schiltz and
Tori Katzenmeyer to extend the lead to 6-0. Illinois Wesleyan got on the board with 11:26 left in the first half with a goal by Mia Fiandaca assisted by Carly Bajusz. UWL would score the next three goals from Brilz, Feeney and Katzenmeyer to make it 12-1 at the half.
Illinois Wesleyan would strike first in the second half with another goal from Fiandaca. UWL's Schiltz, Brilz and
Joslyn Brotemarkle scored to make it 15-2 after three quarters.
Stefania Rossi recorded seven saves.
The final period saw Fiandaca record her third goal for Illinois Wesleyan with an assist from Maddie Gibson. Maloney recorded her second goal of the game for UWL with 6:26 left to make it 16-3. The Titans' Carly Bajusz finished the game off with a goal with 1:07 remaining.
UWL recorded 29 shots in the win. Schiltz led the Eagles with four goals with Feeney and Brilz each recording three. Maloney added two goals and had a team-high six draw controls. Maloney and
Kara Stay each had six of UWL's 38 ground balls in the contest.
Stefania Rossi had seven saves.
Illinois Wesleyan finished with 16 shots. Fiandaca recorded three goals while totaling a team-high five ground balls and five draw controls. Brooke Ayres forced five of the team's 14 caused turnovers. Lizzie Rymarcsuk recorded nine saves in the match-up.
UWL returns to action Wednesday, March 12 at Edgewood College (Wis.) at 5 p.m.
