Even with a two-hour weather delay and wet and rainy conditions this past Friday, May 3, the Hofstra women’s lacrosse team defeated the Towson University Tigers 11-8 to advance to their sixth Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) title game – their first since 2013 – to meet the James Madison University (JMU) Dukes. The Pride’s only CAA Championship came back in 2007 when they defeated JMU in the title game.

Offensively, the Pride was led by Alyssa Parrella and Camryn Faith, who each had three goals in the win. On the defensive side of the ball, Jess Smith matched her season-high total with 13 saves.

Towson started the game with fireworks just over a minute in as Kerri Liucci rifled the ball past Smith to give Towson an early 1-0 lead. For the next five minutes, the game was a defensive standstill with both the Pride and the Tigers exchanging shots and clearance attempts as neither team could find the back of the net.

Then at the 23:59 mark, the Pride was awarded a free position shot off a foul from Annie Sachs. Parrella lined up and scored to tie the game at one and net her first of three goals during the outing.

For the next five minutes, the Pride and the Tigers would each exchange shots and goals as both team’s offenses were able to beat the opposing team’s defense. Still, due to a Kerri Thornton goal, the score was 4-3 Towson.

Seven minutes later, Faith found the back of the net during a man-up situation to make the score 4-4. Immediately after the goal, the game was delayed until 9:20 p.m. due to lighting in the area.

When the teams returned to action, Amanda Guerra and Parrella both scored before the half ended to give the Pride a 6-4 lead entering halftime.

At the end of the half, the Pride were getting outshot 17-13 but were kept safe in the defensive third thanks to Smith’s nine saves in the opening half.

The second half would again begin with a Towson goal, but this time it was Kaitlin Thornton who got the ball past Smith to pull the Tigers back to within one.

Immediately after, the Pride converted on another man up situation, this time with Faith finding the back of the net to make the score 7-5. Both teams could not get past the opposing team’s defense for a while as the Pride and the Tigers both had shots that were close to scoring, but each team’s goalie stopped the ball from getting past them.

Then, at the 19:27 mark, Towson midfielder Shelby Stack found the back of the net to make the score 7-6. Immediately after an Alexa Mattera draw control win, the Pride found the back of the net just seconds later thanks to another Faith goal to give them back a two-goal lead.

Five minutes later, Parrella again found the back of the net to make the score 9-6 and give the Pride their first three-goal lead of the game.

Hofstra and Towson would each score two more times before the final whistle to make the final score 11-8 in the Pride’s favor and book their ticket to the CAA championship.

Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics