The Towson women's lacrosse team has grown as a program, but the Tigers had never won an NCAA tournament game — until Friday.

The host Tigers controlled possession for most of the game and ran all over visiting Old Dominion, 16-5, in the first round at Johnny Unitas Stadium.

Emily Gillingham and Natalie Sulmonte each had three goals for Towson (16-3), which had 10 goal scorers. Morgan Marrale scored two goals to lead the Monarchs (16-4), who were making their first appearance in the tournament.

The Tigers, who had been 0-7 in NCAA tournament games, will host No. 7 seed Penn, a 17-7 winner over Wagner in Sunday's second round at noon.

Towson dominated, outshooting Old Dominion 20-6 in the first half and 16-4 in the second. If not for Monarchs goalie Maggi Buckley's 15 saves, the score would have been much more lopsided.

“It feels good to get that first win,” senior defender Nadia Podo said. “I remember when we got into the play-in game my freshman year, and that was big. This win means a lot.”

Sulmonte said that the Tigers were trying to get a lot of players involved.

“We had a lot of people who contributed tonight,” said Sulmonte, a freshman. “I think we were patient on offense, and we waited for the open shots.”

Towson started the scoring with goals by Breanna Hamm, Sulmonte and Jenna Kerr (Marriotts Ridge) to take a 3-0 lead with 15:36 left in the first half.

After Old Dominion used a goal by Marrale 12 seconds later to cut the margin to 3-1, Towson responded in kind. The Tigers took the ensuing faceoff, and Kerr scored 10 seconds after that to run the lead to 4-1 with 14:14 left in the half.

The Tigers scored the next four goals, two by Sulmonte, and one each by Gillingham and Katie Sciandra, to extend the lead to 8-1 with 6:42 left in the half.

The Monarchs narrowed the deficit with goals by Ashmore Standing, the Atlantic Sun Conference Player of the Year, on a free position, and by Mary McCaleb to cut the margin to 8-3 at the half.

It was more of the same in the second half. The Tigers scored the first four goals after the break, with one each coming from Gillingham, Alyssa Ferro, Kaitlyn Montalbano and Samantha Brookhart (Mount Hebron), to take a 12-3 lead and put the game away.

The Tigers will face the Quakers, who beat them, 7-4, on March 19.