GAME INFORMATION
Score: No. 5 Keiser 17, Lees-McRae 4
Records: No. 5 Keiser (2-0), Lees-McRae (0-1)
Location: Lees-McRae College – Banner Elk, N.C.

KU HIGHLIGHTS

• The temperature hovered around freezing in Banner Elk, N.C., but the cold conditions proved to be no favor to the hosts as the Seahawks improved to 2-0. No. 5 Keiser has now outscored the opening two opponents of the 2019 season by a margin of 37-7.
• Keiser produced 35 shots to Lees-Mcrae's 16, and it was 26-12 in total shots on goal as the Seahawks put pressure on the Bobcat defense all game long.
• Keiser won 15 of the 23 draw controls, and were also effective on 16-of-17 clear attempts.
• Melanie Brown paced Keiser with five points on three goals and two assists.
• Cat Raymond and Valeria Lomaglio each joined Brown with hat tricks in the game, and overall Keiser displayed offensive versatility with seven different players having multi-goal games.
• Raymond and Margo Reed led Keiser with five ground balls, while Brown and Raymond each caused three turnovers.
• Madalyn Huber had eight draw controls for the Seahawks, and in net, Jessica Covell played the opening half and made five saves to earn the win while Mickey Sherrill played the second half and stopped three Bobcat shots.

TURNING POINT
The Seahawks set the tone early in this one and used a dominant 5-0 start to gain a comfortable lead against the hosts from Lees-McRae, one that continued to grow over the course of the contest.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Keiser started the game by maintaining the vast majority of the possession and making the most of the opportunities in front of net. It took just 59 seconds for the Seahawks to strike, as Hayley Mazreku converted on a pass from Huber.
• Four more goals would come without a Lees-McRae answer, as started by Mazreku's second goal of the game at the 21:10 mark. Four of the first five goals came off of assists, and Keiser led 5-0 with 14 minutes left in the first half.
• The Bobcats were unable to break through until there was 10:55 left in the opening half to make it 5-1.
• Moments later, Lees-McRae almost made it 5-2, but Covell made a great stick save and tossed it out quickly to get the Seahawks in transition, and it was Huber who finished it off to push the score right back up to 6-1.
• The final two tallies of the opening half also belonged to the Seahawks. Keiser's seventh score came from Towner on a free position, and then the eighth KU goal of the game was from the stick of Brown in front of the net on a nice pass from Micaela Rillo with 1:46 to go in the half.
• The teams went into the halftime break with Keiser holding the 8-1 advantage, but Lees-McRae struck first in half two to make it 8-2.
• Kyli Towner, Raymond, and Brown netted unassisted goals to make it 11-2, and although Lees-McRae found success with an attack to get it to 11-3, the game was broken open even more with four consecutive Seahawk scores that made it 15-3 with 17:09 on the clock.
• Lees-McRae eked out one more goal against the staunch Keiser defense at the 14:54 mark, but soon after Raymond's unassisted goal with 9:04 on the clock completed her hat trick and came on the man-up opportunity.
• Se'Anna Beikirch had the final marker for Keiser to account for the 17-4 final score, as the junior found the back of the net with 4:08 remaining as Keiser went on for the second victory in the opening two games of 2019.

TEAM LEADERS
No. 5 Keiser
Points: Brown (5)
Goals: Brown/Lomaglio/Raymond (3)
Assists: Brown/Huber (2)
Draw Controls: Huber (8)
Ground Balls: Raymond/Reed (5)
Caused Turnovers: Brown/Raymond (3)
Saves: Covell (5)
 
Lees-McRae
Points: Grassett/Haynes (2)
Goals: Grassett (2)
Assists: Three with 1
Draw Controls: Grassett (4)
Ground Balls: Davidson/Haynes/Thomson (5)
Caused Turnovers: Haynes (2)
Saves: Davidson (5)
 
Coach's Corner
"I am very proud of how our team remained focused and disciplined to our game plan this weekend," said Head Coach Lauren Bennett. "We were able to fine tune some of our fundamentals and build a great foundation going into the rest of our season."
 
Up Next
After the successful opening weekend of the 2019 season, No. 5 Keiser will begin preparations for an away matchup with No. 9 Reinhardt University in Waleska, Georgia on Sunday, February 24 at 12:00 p.m.