As far as lacrosse clichés go, “win the draw, rule the world” is right up there with the most commonly used. Maybe there’s a good reason why.

Louisville thoroughly dominated on the draw circle, as Madi McKee led the way with eight draw controls in a 14-11 win over No. 20 Virginia Tech on Saturday. As a team, Louisville (3-2) held a 20-8 advantage on draws. Hannah Morris, Nicole Perroni and Caroline Blalock each recorded hat tricks for the Cardinals.

Louisville trailed 6-4 midway through the second quarter but scored four straight between th second and third quarters for an 8-6 lead. Goals from Sarah Lubnow and Sophie Student tied the score at 8 for Virginia Tech (2-3), but Louisville scored the next three — one each from Alex Steffens, Blalock and Morris.

Even though Virginia Tech hung around and continued to threaten, Louisville hung on. Kokoro Nakazawa’s seventh goal of the season with 37 seconds left gave the Cardinals a four-goal lead and put the exclamation point on the victory.

TYRRELL WINS IT IN OVERTIME

It was a one-goal win for the second game in a row, and even though the games have gotten closer, Syracuse’s record remains unblemished. Meaghan Tyrrell scored the winner in overtime for the Orange, who managed to beat Notre Dame 17-16. It’s also the second one-goal game in a row for Notre Dame, which lost to Northwestern during the week.

Syracuse (4-0) led 16-13 with 6:11 remaining, but Notre Dame (1-4) fought back. Jackie Wolak, Kasey Choma and Mary Kelly Doherty scored in a 3-0 run to end regulation, with Doherty’s goal tying the score with just 16 seconds left. Emma Tyrrell led Syracuse with seven points (four goals, three assists), and Emily Hawryschuk also scored four goals. Madison Ahern led all scorers with six goals for Notre Dame, and Choma added five of her own.

SEARS’ CAREER DAY LEADS PRINCETON

Kyla Sears can do it all. Score goals, find cutters and sing the National Anthem. She was a triple threat against Temple, tying career highs in goals (six) and points (eight) after opening the game with her rendition of the National Anthem. It all led to a 14-10 win for the No. 10 Tigers over Temple.

Get You A Girl Who Can Do Both.

Sing National Anthem Before The Game
Tie Career High In Goals (6) & Points (8) During Game

Kyla Sears had a pretty sweet Saturday. pic.twitter.com/ncLd6N4dsq

— Princeton Women's Lax (@princetonwlax) February 26, 2022

Temple (3-1), a team on the cusp of the Nike/USA Lacrosse Top 20, gave Princeton (2-0) all it could handle. Belle Mastropietro (three goals) tied the score at 10 with 12:19 remaining, but Sears took over the final 11-plus minutes.

Princeton scored the last four goals of the game. Sears scored three of them and assisted the other, a goal by McKenzie Blake that put the Tigers up 13-10.

BC PULLS AWAY FROM BROWN

Credit to Brown, which gave defending champion and top-ranked Boston College a run for its money. But the Eagles were just too much to handle, as Charlotte North’s five goals led the way in a 15-9 win.

Maggie Fowler cut the deficit to 9-6 for Brown (1-2) with 6:07 left in the third quarter, but Boston College (5-0) scored the next six goals to go ahead 15-6.

Mascone and Jackie Mason each scored twice for Brown, and Erin Tucker made 13 saves.

NOTABLE

• Aurora Cordingley became the first Terps since Alex Aust in 2013 to record a 10-point game, as No. 4 Maryland throttled No. 11 Florida 18-8 in College Park. USA Lacrosse Magazine was on site, so read more here.

• No. 14 Rutgers improved to 4-0 with an easy 17-6 win over Lehigh. Taralyn Naslonski led with six points (five goals), though Cassidy Spilis also scored five times. Sophomore Sophia Cardello made 12 saves for the Scarlet Knights.

• James Madison evened its record at 2-2 with an 11-6 win over High Point. Tai Jankowski scored three goals, and Molly Dougherty made nine saves — the first of which made her the sixth goalie in program history to record 500 saves.

• Johns Hopkins (2-1) got three goals from Shelby Harrison and two goals and two assists from Georgia Esmond in a 10-8 win over Penn (1-1). After Penn’s Lexi Edmonds tied the score at 7 with three seconds left in the third quarter, Hopkins opened the final period with three straight — two from Esmond and one from Jordan Carr.

HOW THE NIKE/USAL TOP 20 FARED

No. 1 Boston College defeated Brown 15-9
No. 3 Syracuse defeated Notre Dame 17-16 (OT)
No. 4 Maryland defeated No. 11 Florida 18-8
No. 10 Princeton defeated Temple 14-10
No. 14 Rutgers defeated Lehigh 17-6
Louisville defeated No. 20 Virginia Tech 14-11

FULL SCOREBOARD

American 16, Howard 3
Army 19, Marist 9
No. 1 Boston College 15, Brown 9
Bryant 20, Columbia 6
Bucknell 17, Robert Morris 6
Colgate 16, Saint Bonaventure 6
Hofstra 9, Fairfield 5
James Madison 11, High Point 6
Johns Hopkins 10, Penn 8
Lafayette 11, La Salle 9
Louisville 14, Virginia Tech 11
Manhattan 15, Delaware State 8
No. 4 Maryland 18, No. 11 Florida 8
Monmouth 12, LIU 11
Mount St. Mary’s 13, Binghamton 7
Old Dominion 15, Longwood 6
Penn State 20, Cornell 11
No. 10 Princeton 14, Temple 10
No. 14 Rutgers 17, Lehigh 6
No. 3 Syracuse 17, Notre Dame 16 (OT)
UC Davis 16, Cal 5
UMass 21, Boston U. 6
UMBC 16, George Washington 5
Yale 16, Albany 14

Georgetown at Harvard, PPD