By Joe Pantorno, Assistant Sports Editor

After four consecutive losses and a slide in the national rankings, the Hofstra University women’s lacrosse team returned to winning ways with a 15-6 victory over Fairfield.

“It’s nice to get a win,” said head coach Abby Morgan. “It felt good to have a team win. We had a lot of people step up and do things we know that they can do.”

It was not the ideal start for Hofstra, as Fairfield scored two goals in the game’s first 3:04.

The Pride (3-5) began controlling draws, seeming to settle down the offense and control possession for a bit. 

Hofstra rallied back from a 3-1 deficit, scoring the last seven goals of the half, capped by freshman attacker Lindsay McKinnon’s third goal of the game.

Along with McKinnon’s three, sophomore attacker Claire Brady added two of her own. Junior goalie Jackie Pandolf was busy in the first half, making five saves.

“We really wanted some high-pressure defense,” said Pandolf. “I think we really startled them and forced them to make mistakes.”

Hofstra experienced a scary moment when Brady was pushed from behind and fell awkwardly on her leg and was taken out of the game.

The offensive attack did not slow down though, as some great distribution picked apart the Fairfield defense.

“We’ve relied on Steph [Rice] and Jill [Maier] to do the scoring for us. We know we have the talent to spread out our scoring,” said Morgan.

“This is what we like to see but one game is not enough for us.”

Fairfield tried to scrap its way back into the game but Hofstra’s offense proved to be too much, as junior midfielder Maryann Miller and freshman attacker Jenn Ward tacked on goals.

There was a lull in scoring as both teams could not find the net for almost 10 minutes, but the streak was broken when Ward tallied her second of the game to put Hofstra up 13-6 with 3:27 remaining in the game.

The Stags did not pose much of an offensive threat throughout the  second half as Hofstra continued to control possession for a majority of the last 30 minutes.

Hofstra was able to put an exclamation point on its win, scoring its highest number of goals in a game this season

“We’re this good and we’re going to keep going,” said Pandolf.