SPARKS, Md. — It was a successful return for professional women’s lacrosse in Sparks. Opening night of the Athletes Unlimited season saw the game's biggest stars put on a show.
The reigning champion, goalie Taylor Moreno, picked up right where she left off last season. Her team defeated Team Britt Read 8-4. Moreno made 13 saves, including seven in the opening half minutes, and earned the top most valuable player honor of the three given out in the contest. Just like she ended last year, she now sits atop the player leaderboard in this league that crowns an individual champ at the end of the four-week season.
Right behind her is Sam Apuzzo. Her squad put together a fourth-quarter rally to edge Team Ally Mastroianni 11-10. A.U.’s all-time leader in goals and points was named MVP No. 1 as well for her game. She scored three of her four goals in the second half.
"It was a great night. We had a lot of fans in the stands, a lot of energy coming from the sideline. You are working out the kinks the very first quarter, first few minutes. Then you kind of get a rhythm. You figure out your connections, your chemistry, how you play with one another and kind of play to one another’s strengths, too. So, after we kind of got that down throughout the game, it felt like everything flowed better. We had better chemistry and it kind of worked out in our favor," said Apuzzo, who has 162 leaderboard points.
"With my team, they were just full of I.Q. They worked really well together. I think with such a short amount of time, creating that chemistry on the field is huge and my defensive unit was awesome," said Moreno, who set a single-game record with 257 leaderboard points.
Both players credited the crowd for an electric atmosphere on night one at USA Lacrosse headquarters.
"We had a great fan base here, which was super exciting for us," said Moreno. "Just to see how far the sport has come, I think is huge for us."
"We are in Maryland. This is lacrosse country, which is so fun to be in this area, have so much excitement around lacrosse and to be able to play in front of a Maryland crowd is awesome," added Apuzzo.
Now on tap are four more games over the weekend. There are two on Saturday and two on Sunday. Action gets going on both days at noon.
Follow Shawn Stepner on Twitter @StepnerWMAR and Facebook
