By Stacy Troiano
The Pride continued its string of competitive non-conference games early in the season on Sunday when they traveled to Nashville to take on 16th ranked Vanderbilt University. Hofstra has held its own in battle with four nationally ranked opponents in its five games this year, but it was the Commodores who took home the 12-7 victory on Sunday afternoon.
The Pride arrived in Nashville at 9:30 Sunday morning for a game at noon because of a winter storm that walloped the Northeast over the weekend. They may have been feeling the effects early as Vanderbilt jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first half and fought off a vigorous Pride rally to hold on for the win.
Jennifer Tapscott scored right off the opening draw control and then fed Margie Curran 30 seconds later to put Vandy up 2-0 quick. Sarah Downing added two goals during the early run and Kendall Thrift one to stretch the lead to 5-0 with 7:05 left in the half.
Despite the early hole, head coach Abby Morgan was happy with the ball control. “We did a pretty good job controlling the ball on the attacking end; we had the ball for a long time,” she said. “To be honest, we could’ve been down a lot more if we didn’t have the ball as long as we did in our early possessions.”
The Pride drought lasted nearly the entire first half until senior attack Becky Thorn ripped an unassisted goal past Vanderbilt goalie Brooke Shinaberry to make the score 5-1 with 3:06 to go. That score would stand heading into the locker room.
The Commodores came out strong again in the second half as Curran and Tapscott extended the lead to 7-1 with goals in the first 3:15 of the second half.
Senior attacker Kim Hillier and senior midfielder Casey McGrath got on the board to make the score 8-3, but the Pride would be stuck on 3 for almost 20 minutes. Vanderbilt stretched the lead to 11-3 before the Pride made a run in the final six minutes of play.
Thorn and McGrath would score on back to back free position shots, and Thorn added her third goal of the game assisted by freshman midfielder Corrine Gandolfi to bring the Pride within 5 at 11-6 with 4:23 to play.
That would be as close as the Pride would get as both teams scored one more goal each and ended the game at 12-7. With the loss, the Pride fell to 2-3 on the season while Vanderbilt improved to 4-3 overall.
Thorn and McGrath each finished with three goals, and Hillier’s goal put her at 40 straight games with a point scored. Vanderbilt held a 32-20 advantage on shots, while junior goalie Maisie Osteen turned in another strong effort, recording ten saves in the net for the pride.
Morgan said that she was happy to see the fight in her team, but admits she sees one negative trend in all of the Pride’s losses.
“We got down pretty quickly pretty early, and that’s been our weakness,” Morgan said. “In all of our losses we’ve gotten down early. (Sunday) we put up a heck of a fight in the second half, but we’re still not playing all 60 minutes, and that’s what we need to do to win games.”
Morgan also said that she is pleased to see that her squad never gives up, even if they do find themselves in holes early in games. As a team trying to find its right mixture, she said that now is a good time to learn these things, meaning before conference play.
Hofstra next travels north to take on the University of New Hampshire in its last game before CAA play begins. The Pride open conference games at home against Drexel on April 1st.
Casey McGrath and the women’s lacrosse team will look to get back to their winning ways in New Hampshire.