SALISBURY, N.C.--The No. 5 Trojans (9-2, 2-2) traveled to North Carolina on Saturday for a Top-20 South Atlantic Conference matchup against Catawba (7-2, 2-2) and ultimately came up short, falling 22-12.
The Catawba Indians took an early lead and never gave it up. The host side won the opening quarter by a 6-3 margin, before scoring five-straight in Q2 to reach a 12-4 advantage over the Trojans going into halftime.
The Black and Gold found a spark of offensive rhythm to open the second half, putting up four unanswered goals to cut the lead to four. Catawba bounced back, however, with eight of their own, and AU was unable to recover. Anderson lost 22-12.
The Trojans recorded their lowest numbers of the season across multiple stat categories, including goals with 12, shots with 41 and SOGs with 22. In contrast, Catawba posted season-high numbers of all of Anderson's opponents so far, totaling 22 goals, 58 shots and 34 SOG.
For the first time this year, the Trojans did not claim the game's faceoff statistic, winning only 18 of 37 at the X for a .486 win percentage.
Anderson also fell victim to their worst turnover margin of the year, committing 21 turnovers (the most by AU this season), while Catawba only committed 13 turnovers (the least by an AU opponent this season).
AU looks to bounce back with two-straight home games next week, hosting No. 8 Newberry on Wednesday (April 1) and Lincoln Memorial on Saturday (April 4).
