DANVILLE, Va. — The Averett University women's lacrosse team defeated Ferrum College on Tuesday night, 15-5. Senior Alixis Roccia paced the Cougars to victory with six goals.
 
Averett (4-2) got off to a roaring start offensively as the Cougars tallied three goals in the second minute of play alone. Roccia registered the first two before sophomore Elizabeth Peasley scored at the 28:20 mark to make it 3-0 in favor of the Cougars.
 
This fast start aided the Cougars immensely as Averett was able to gradually increase their lead throughout the course of the first half. In fact, all of Roccia's goals came in the first thirty minutes of play with her last strike coming at the 7:20 mark of the first half to make it 10-0 Cougars. Ferrum (2-3) was able to get on the scoreboard in the 28th minute to cut the Averett lead to 10-1 during the halftime break.
 
Freshman Courtney DeLone got the offense going early in the second half for Averett as the Edmond, Oklahoma, native recorded two goals in the first three minutes. At this point, Ferrum started gaining more of an offensive rhythm and were able to rattle off three straight goals to make it 12-4 Averett with 15:54 left in regulation.
 
The Cougar defense, however, began to make things much harder on Ferrum the rest of the way as Ferrum struck the scoreboard just one more time while Averett tallied three more to win the game, 15-5.
 
Averett held the advantage in draw controls (16-6) and ground balls (40-24) which helped them produce 42 shots on the night with 28 of those shots coming on frame.
 
In addition to her six goals, Roccia also collected an assist which makes her the all-time career assists leader in program history with 22.  
 
Peasley registered her fourth hat-trick of the year while sophomore Breanne Sawall had 10 saves in net.
 
The Cougars open up conference play at Huntingdon College on Saturday. Game time is scheduled for 12 p.m. ET