Hofstra women’s lacrosse lost to CAA rival and 17th ranked James Madison Friday night by a score of 17-9 at James M. Shuart Stadium.
It was a game of runs for both sides but James Madison was able to pull ahead of the Pride early and never relinquished the lead. After an opening goal from Alexa Mattera, her seventh of the season, JMU rattled off six straight goals to bust the game open early.

Four of JMU’s goals were unassisted and two were from free position shots. Hofstra was able to rattle off three straight goals to reduce the deficit to 6-4, but the Dukes ended the first half by scoring another five unanswered goals.

“They [James Madison] put up a lot of points on us towards the last 20 minutes of that first half,” said Hofstra head Coach Shannon Smith. “I thought we struggled on draw controls in that first half, that really hurt us.” James Madison won the draw control in the game 16-12 over Hofstra.

In the second half, Hofstra came out hot, scoring three of the first four goals and cutting the lead to 12-7. Unfortunately for the Pride, the Dukes went on another run of five straight unanswered goals to seal the game.

“Defensively we played pretty well in the second half. Maddie [Fields] was coming up with some saves,” Smith said.

“We talked about in the locker room: when defense is playing well, offense has to play well and when offense is playing well, defense has to play well and I think we’re not doing that right now. We have to string moments of the game together.”

Not all was bad for the Pride as freshman Alexa Mattera and Alyssa Parrella both had solid games. Mattera scored two goals and Parrella had a hat trick, bringing her scoring total to 37 on the season.

“They’re two tremendous freshman. They do really well for us in the midfield, Alexa works really hard for us…. She showed up offensively today so it’s really nice to see the growth of her game as a freshman from where she was at the beginning of the season to now,” Smith said.

“Alyssa [Parrella] does it all offensively, defensively, in the midfield and they [Parrella and Mattera] fight and run real hard, just like everyone else on our team.”

After winning four in a row, the Pride has now dropped three straight to start off CAA play this season. Hofstra’s next game will be against the Towson Tigers at James M. Shuart Stadium on April 16.
On the upcoming game against Towson, Smith said, “We got to be focused on every play, every draw control. Draw control in the women’s game are huge…We need people to step up for us.”