Second half surge pushes Walsh past Tornados

Second half surge pushes Walsh past Tornados
Posted: Mar 07, 2017

BREVARD, N.C. - Despite a close first half the Walsh Cavaliers (2-1) had a dominating second half to push past the Brevard College Tornados (1-4) to win 20-9 in Tuesday's midweek game.

The Tornados were paced by Kelly Kearnan (Morrisville, N.C.), who scored three goals for the blue and white. Nina Siu (Greensboro, N.C.) and Victoria Hayes (Freehold, N.J.) each added a pair of goals, while Siu led the Tornados with four assists. Hayes finished with five shots for Brevard. Brittany Fisk (Waterloo, N.Y.) and Micaiah Vacchiano (Sebastian, Fla.) each scored for the Tornados, as Fisk was also credited with two assists.

Tornados' goalkeeper, Shelby Arsenault (Shallow Lake, Ontario) had a season-high 16 saves as Walsh finished with 46 shots during the match. Penina Fungalei (Forthworth, Texas) anchored the defense, causing three Walsh turnovers, and scooping up four groundballs.

Walsh jumped out to an early 3-0 lead as Maria Nobile put the Cavaliers on the board first. Nobile would then hand the ball off to Aly Jajack a minute later for the game's second goal. Victoria Hayes scored first for the blue and white at the 22:59 mark off a pass from Nina Siu.

Walsh added another goal to increase its lead to 4-1. However, the Tornados pulled within one as Nina Siu scored the next two goals for the blue and white.
Brittany Fisk found Kelly Kearnan in the final minute of the first half to put Brevard within two goals at intermission.

Coming out of halftime, Micaiah Vacchiano found the net off a pass from Siu to make the score 8-7. The Cavaliers answered scoring the next three goals.

Fisk handed the ball off to Kearnan again at the 19:55 mark for the Tornados' eighth goal of the day. Hayes scored Brevard's final goal of the day to put the Tornados within two with 16 minutes remaining.

Walsh controlled the remaining minutes going on a 9-0 run to close out the game by a final of 20-9. The Cavaliers benefited from four free position shots that led to goals.

Brevard will return to conference play this weekend as they host Coker College on Saturday, March 11. The women's game will begin at noon with the men's game following at 3 p.m.