ELMIRA, N.Y. -- The Elmira College women's lacrosse team is set for its long-awaited home debut, as the Soaring Eagles will host the Wildcats of Cazenovia College in a non-conference contest on Saturday, March 25, at 1:30 p.m. The game will be played on the turf field at nearby Ernie Davis Academy.

LAST TIME OUT
Elmira suffered its third straight setback of the 2017 season last time out against SUNY New Paltz, as the Soaring Eagles fell to the Hawks by a 13-7 final score. The Hawks took a 5-3 lead into the halftime break, but back-to-back goals by EC's Louisa Lippiatt Durnell '18 and Kelsey Quail '17 in the second half leveled the non-conference bout at 5-5. From there, goals by New Paltz's Alexa Criollo and Elmira's Rachael Goetz '20 brought the score to 6-all. Following the Goetz tally, Elmira was awarded two consecutive free-positions and put a shot on frame during the second attempt, but New Paltz's Kendra Dansereau came up with a timely save to keep the score knotted at 6-6. The Hawks would ride the momentum of Dansereau's save the rest of the way out, as New Paltz outscored Elmira 7-to-1 in the final 19:07 of regulation to secure a six-goal win. 

WARGO CLIMBS ALL-TIME RECORDS CHART
Senior netminder Lindsay Wargo '17 came up with nine stops in Elmira's loss to New Paltz last Thursday evening. The nine saves increased Wargo's career-save total to 279, good enough to move into a two-way tie with former Elmira great, Ann Phillips '07, for third place all-time in EC history. Wargo became the first player to crack the top-three since 2013, when Mary Kate Gellerman '13 ended her collegiate career second all-time with 355 saves. With 21 additional saves, Wargo will also become the third player in program history to reach the 300-save plateau.

LEAGUE LEADER
Kelcey Crawford '18 missed the first game of the 2017 season because of her dual-responsibilities as the EC women's ice hockey starting goaltender. Despite the lack of practice and game time, the Purcellville, Virginia, native has been a leader on the Elmira defense. Crawford leads the Empire 8 Conference in caused turnovers per game with an average of 3.50, which is 1.17 higher than the next closest player. Crawford also ranks among the best in the conference in terms of ground balls, as the junior defender is tied with Houghton College's Meghan Oswald for the league lead in ground balls per game (5.00). 

CAZENOVIA AT A GLANCE
Coming off of a 2016 season in which Cazenovia won the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) regular season title and advanced to the NEAC Tournament Championship Game, the Wildcats had high expectations for the 2017 season. However, Caz, which was voted only fifth out of 10 teams in the NEAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, has fallen in two of their first three games. That includes a 16-4 drubbing by Swarthmore College and an 18-6 defeat against Utica College last time out on March 21. The lone win of the young season for the Wildcats has been an 11-4 triumph over Emmanuel College on March 8 in Hilton Head, South Carolina. All three NEAC All-Conference First Teamers - senior attacker Kaitlin Sheppard, junior defender Lauren Gee, and senior goalie Abigail Kortz - are back for Caz this season. Sheppard, who paced the team with 42 goals and 60 points in her junior campaign, has racked up nine points (4g, 5a) through the first three games of 2017, second only to Breana Howe's 11 (10g, 1a). Kortz has made 34 saves with a .472 save percentage and a 12.67 goals-against average, while playing all 180:00 minutes between the pipes.

SERIES HISTORY
Since the 2004 season, the Soaring Eagles and Wildcats have met on six occasions, with Elmira coming out on top each time. Not only has EC swept the six matchups, but it has never scored less than 17 goals and has won by a double-digit margin in all six games. It has been a while since the two teams have met; the last contest between EC and Caz was on March 28, 2010, a game in which the Soaring Eagles prevailed by a 17-5 final score. 

LOOKING AHEAD
The Soaring Eagles will open play inside the Empire 8 Conference on Tuesday, March 28, when Elmira pays a visit to its Route 13 rival, the Bombers of Ithaca College. The conference matchup is slated to begin at 4:00 p.m. in Ithaca, New York.