The overcast skies over James M. Shuart Stadium didn’t prevent the Hofstra spirit from shining bright as the women’s lacrosse team beat the University at Albany Great Danes by a score of 11-7 on March 5, bringing the Pride’s record for the season to 4-1.
The Great Danes began the game with an aggressive offensive, and it took less than 90 seconds for midfielder Katie Pascale to get onto the scoreboard. The Pride didn’t take lightly to this, taking a shot at the opposing goalie a minute later.
Defender Shannon Boyle was as light-footed as ever, snatching up a groundball and weaving her way through the Danes’ attackers to help get the ball closer to the enemy net. This forceful push helped get the ball to senior and captain Katie Whelan, who assisted Katie Fiola in evening out the score for the Pride.
Both teams continued to trade possession of the ball in rapid succession, with Hofstra ending the first quarter with a narrow one-goal lead of 3-2. Muscling through the field in the first four minutes of the second quarter, midfielder Arianna Esposito found the back of the net for the fifth time this season, making the score 4-2.
Hofstra was tighter on defense, especially in the second quarter. “Albany move[d] the ball quickly, and I felt that our defense really executed our game plan super well,” said head coach Shannon Smith. To add to the defense’s cohesion, goalie Jess Smith had blocked a total of four shots by the end of the first half. “She had a couple of big saves for us and stole a couple on [Albany’s] doorstep,” Shannon Smith said, further commending the Colonial Athletic Association’s Defensive Player of the week.
Closer to the tail end of the second quarter, the Pride began a more offensive approach, starting when Katie Whelan caught a groundball. She cut through the field to the opposing crease, almost entirely uncontested by the Great Danes’ defensive team, contributing to Hofstra’s 3-goal lead. In response, Albany’s attacker Hailey Carroll took the game into her own hands and retaliated, bringing the score to 5-3 in the last five seconds of the second quarter.
The third quarter was marked by a change of pace by the Pride, as the attack team pushed harder. “I think [the athletes] were starting to shoot better,” Shannon Smith said. This proved to be true as the Pride went on a 3-0 run within a five-minute span in the third quarter. This brought the Pride to its highest lead in the game, a dominating five points over Albany. This didn’t last, however, because Pascale scored a free-position shot for the Great Danes with 7:12 left in the quarter.
Hofstra’s Taylor Mennella, a junior attacker, got that 5-point lead back 68 seconds into the fourth quarter, sending the ball flying past the goalie for the second time in the day. The Danes went full Empire-Strikes-Back-mode, getting more goals in this quarter than they had scored in any other quarter so far, with 3 shots finding the back of the net. The Pride responded with two goals on top of Mennella’s, one by Arianna Esposito and the last by Grace Langella, to finish up the match at 11-7.
The Pride’s next faceoff is against the Wagner College Seahawks at James M. Shuart Stadium on Tuesday, March 8, at 3 p.m.
Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
