By Stacy Troiano
The women’s lacrosse team has been on a tear of late, and Tuesday afternoon they rode their recent hot streak right into a match-up against local rival Stony Brook. Five goals from senior midfielder Casey McGrath propelled the Pride to the narrow 15-14 victory over the Seawolves, as Hofstra continued its winning ways.
The win was Hofstra’s seventh in its last eight games and boosts their record to 9-5 on the season. The Pride have now beaten Stony Brook in all three meetings all-time, while the Seawolves fall to 12-3 on the year.
Stony Brook got on the board first at the 22:14 mark as Amy Taylor notched her 32nd of the year, but the Pride got three straight in just over two minutes at the hands of senior attacker Kim Hillier and sophomore Lauren Whitcomb.
The Pride scored five of the next six goals in the half to take a commanding 8-3 lead with 7:02 left in the first stanza after Whitcomb’s third of the game. But the Seawolves stirred up a rally of their own, ending the half on a 4-0 run from four different players in less than five minutes, closing the halftime gap to just one at 8-7. Head Coach Abby Morgan didn’t want to see that, but felt her team was still right there.
“I think a lot of [Tuesday] was that they were tired,” Morgan said. “We had some lapses defensively, but we weren’t second guessing ourselves. We were just a little relaxed on defense, and we talked about that in the locker room and then just battled in the second half.”
The teams battled evenly to open the second half, each tallying four goals in the first 12-plus minutes to put Hofstra up 12-11 after an unassisted goal by freshman midfielder Corrine Gandolfi at the 17:46 mark.
But a Stony Brook spurt of three straight goals brought them from down one to up two in just over a minute. Amy Hallion notched the equalizer, and scores by Taylor and Diana Caroleo put the Seawolves up 14-12 with 9:55 to play.
But the Pride then did what they do best, proving they had yet another comeback in them. Young set up old as senior attacker Becky Thorn found the back of the net on an assist from freshman Gandolfi to bring the Pride within one. Just a minute and a half later, McGrath’s fifth of the game knotted the score at 14. And with 7:37 to play, Gandolfi ripped the game-winner past Jen Sandtorv, as the Pride held on for the 15-14 win.
Gandolfi finished with two goals and an assist on the day, while McGrath led the way with five for the Pride. Hillier had two goals herself, which gave her 126 during her stellar career and put her in third place on the all-time goals list. Her two points put her at 201 all time as she becomes only the third player in school history to record 200 points in their careers.
It was a record kind of day for the Pride. Thorn finished with four draw controls, which moved her into the top spot all-time with 138. Thorn broke the previous school record of 135 held by Bridget Eder.
Junior goalie Maisie Osteen got her ninth win of the year, tallying five saves in the cage for the Pride.
Hofstra’s five game win streak came to an end over the weekend with a 9-6 loss to No. 20 Delaware despite three goals from Casey McGrath. The loss was the Pride’s first conference defeat all year. They would bounce back on Sunday, defeating Towson 14-11 behind three goals and two assists from Hillier and a team-best four goals from Gandolfi.
The Pride now sit atop the CAA standings at 5-1, as the showdown with second-ranked James Madison looms. The teams will play Friday to determine who will host the four-team conference tournament on May 4th and May 6th.
“It’s going to be a matter of doing the simple things,” Morgan said. “That is what’s going to help us in the big games, controlling momentum and playing our game.”
Casey McGrath’s recent scoring spree has had positive implications for the Pride. Her five goals keyed the team’s victory over SBU.