The Dragons fell to the Tigers, 15-6, April 10. Towson got on the board first and scored four unanswered goals in the first 14 minutes of the game.
Drexel’s first goal came from Nadia Pelham-Lacey with just over 15 minutes remaining in the first half. The Tigers responded with three more goals of their own, making the score a gaudy 7-1 at halftime.
In the first 13 minutes of the second half, Towson went on a 6-1 tear and the Tigers’ lead ballooned to 13-2. Drexel’s Lacey Aghazarian was responsible for the Dragons’ second goal of the afternoon.
The Dragons out-scored Towson, 4-2, in the final 18 minutes of the contest, but the damage was already done. Caroline Thiele scored one of the goals for the Dragons. It would be her first goal of the season.
Head coach Hannah Rudloff acknowledged that her team has had solid runs at the end of games this season, which is something they can build on going forward.
“We tend to have runs like that at the end of the game when we put hesitations and lack of confidence aside and just decide to go for it,” Rudloff explained. “We have young players on attack and do have moments of hesitations. We got some nice looks that we really haven’t gotten before.”
The team played its final home game of the season April 12, senior day, against Delaware. The Dragons put up a better fight in the second game of the weekend, but the Blue Hens still came away with the 9-6 victory.
Drexel scored first with goals from Pelham-Lacey and Devin Nihill to put the team in the lead early in the game, 2-0. The Dragons’ defense dominated throughout the first 20 minutes of play, holding Delaware scoreless.
But the Blue Hens found a crack in the defense and scored a quick pair of goals to knot the game at two and then scored another with less than two minutes to go to take a 3-2 lead at halftime.
Delaware started the second half with three more goals of its own, extending the halftime-spanning run to six unanswered goals before the Dragons responded and cut Delaware’s lead to 6-4. Pelham-Lacey and Nihill both scored their second goals of the contest, respectively.
But the Dragons had a difficult time maintaining possession in the final minutes of the game, after struggling to win draw controls throughout the entire game. They were only able to win six of 17 draws on the afternoon, something Rudloff needs her team to improve in the final games of the season.
“The big thing is the draw,” Rudloff said. “We had different people taking it this weekend than what we are used to. I think we battled, but we didn’t do a great job at controlling where the ball was actually going.”
Drexel scored two more times in the final eight minutes, with goals from Alissa Watts and Emily Kellett, but the effort came up short. The Dragons are now 0-4 in Colonial Athletic Association play.
The Dragons will return to action April 19 when they travel to face Elon University.
Rudloff mentioned that Elon has displayed good effort in conference matchups. She said that the Elon is a young program with very good coaching, something her squad will have to be aware of against the Phoenix.
“We have to bring our A-game,” Rudloff said. “What I think was great against Delaware was that both ends of the ball had good games; it was the piece in between that we have to work on. We have to put a full 60 minutes together.”