TOWSON, Md. – Senior attacker Ali Alati (Montclair Kimberley Academy/Glen Ridge, N.J.) matched her career high with three goals, including two in the first half, as Towson University (7-3, 1-0) extended its home winning streak to four straight games with a 15-10 victory over the University of Delaware (6-3, 0-1) in the Colonial Athletic Association opener for both teams at Johnny Unitas Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

It was the Tigers' second win over the Blue Hens in the last three meetings. Delaware still leads the all-time series by a 30-11 margin.

Led by junior midfielder Britt Woodfield (South Carroll H.S./New Windsor, Md.), the Tigers jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the opening nine minutes. Alati opened the scoring at the 27:45 mark when she converted a pass from Woodfield for her fourth goal of the season. After juniors Meggie McNamara (Fayetteville-Manlius H.S./Fayetteville, N.Y.) and Hillary Fratzke (Queen Anne's County H.S./Centreville, Md.) upped the Tiger advantage to 3-0, Woodfield converted a McNamara pass to give Towson a four-goal edge with 21:09 remaining in the first half.

The Blue Hens narrowed the deficit to 4-2 with back-to-back goals from freshman Brittany Davis (Shoreham-Wading River H.S./Wading River, N.Y.) and sophomore Emily Schaknowski (Shoreham-Wading River H.S./Wading River, N.Y.). However, the Tigers answered with goals from junior Mary Hammond (St. Mary's H.S./Davidsonville, Md.) and freshman Ali Lathroum (Stephen Decatur H.S./Bishopville, Md.) to increase the margin to 6-2 with 6:34 remaining in the period.

The Blue Hens scored two of the final three goals in the first half, cutting the margin to 7-4 at the intermission.

Junior attacker Casey McCrudden (Eastern H.S./Voorhees, N.J.) opened the second half by scoring off a feed from sophomore Courtney Aburn (John Carroll H.S./Jarrettsville, Md.) to narrow the Delaware deficit to 7-5 before the Tigers ran off three straight goals to extend their advantage to 10-5 with 22:03 left. Sophomore attacker Jacie Kendall (Souderton Area H.S./Harleysville, Pa.) scored two of the Tigers' three goals during the spurt while Fratzke added a pair of assists.

After freshman Lexie Yakulis (Radnor H.S./Wayne, Pa.) tallied her first career goal for the Blue Hens with 17:37 remaining, the Tigers countered with goals from Fratzke and McNamara for a 12-6 lead. But, McCrudden and Schaknowski followed with consecutive markers to make the score 12-8 with 9:04 left.

The Tigers scored three of the next four goals for a 15-9 advantage they did not relinquish. McCrudden scored with 33 seconds remaining, but the Tigers won the ensuing draw control and ran out the clock to secure the victory.

While Alati recorded the second "hat trick" of her career, Fratzke and McNamara also added three-goal efforts for the Tigers, who improved to a perfect 4-0 at home this season. Fratzke added a pair of assists, giving her 150 points for her career. She has scored a goal in 36 straight games and tallied a point in all 42 games of her college career.

Senior goalkeeper Mandy Corry (West Essex H.S./North Caldwell, N.J.) made 12 saves for the Tigers, who outshot the Blue Hens by a 32-28 margin and forced Delaware to commit 15 turnovers.

"Our defense was totally amazing today," Alati said. "I think we did great during the second half against Maryland, but today was better because we played well for the entire 60 minutes. Today was all about the defense because we wanted to hold Delaware to 10 goals or less."

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2008-03-30