Greenville, S.C. – Grace Pollak recorded a hat trick, while Hannah Demis dished out four assists, to lead the Furman women's lacrosse team to a 14-11 victory over the East Carolina Pirates in its season opener Friday evening at Paladin Stadium.

Furman improves to 1-0 on the season while East Carolina falls to 0-1 overall.

Pollak scored a game-high five goals, and went 3-for-3 in free position attempts, to lead the Paladins offensively. Demis also contributed five points on a game-high four assists to go with one goal. Leah Nonnenmann and Sydney Catts both collected two goals apiece. Nonnenmann and Lauren Farber both added two assists. Hannah Dintino, Lindsey Kelly and Meagan Beal each scored one goal. Making her first collegiate start, Meghan Deehan earned the win in goal and finished with six saves.

Ally Stanton led the Pirates with a hat trick on three goals. Megan Tryniski, Ellie Bromley and Nicole Legar all had two goals. Legar added one assist along with Mackell Schultes and Caroline Kimel. Ashley Vernon grabbed four saves in goal.

Pollak wasted little time giving Furman the early 1-0 lead, scoring 25 seconds into the contest on a free position attempt. East Carolina responded with three straight goals, including two by Stanton, to take a 3-1 lead. Dintino and Pollak registered back-to-back goals in just over a minute to even the score at 3-3 with 20:33 remaining in the half.

After the Pirates answered back with a goal from Stanton, the Paladins scored five of six goals over the final 11:27 to end the first half. Pollak and Nonnenmann combined for all five goals. Pollak's third, and final, goal of the run came with 11 seconds left before intermission and gave Furman an 8-5 lead at halftime.

East Carolina opened the second half on a 3-0 run and evened the score at 8-8 with 20:16 left after Bromley's goal off a free position attempt. The Paladins answered by scoring six consecutive goals over a stretch of almost 15 minutes to build their lead out to 14-8. Five different Furman players scored during the run with Catts collecting the final two. The Pirates recorded the last three goals of the game to put the final score at 14-11.

The Paladins concluded the game with 25 shots and forced East Carolina into 19 turnovers. Furman also compiled 12 ground balls and 12 draw controls.

The Paladins remain at home next Saturday, February 15 to face Fresno State at 12 p.m.