By Hailey Oliveri - SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
The undefeated Hofstra Women’s lacrosse team fell to the women at Harvard this past Saturday. Although the pride saw a huge effort from sophomore attacker Tiana Parella with a career high five points, the team lost 10-6 to the Crimson. Parella led the team with four goals and one assist.
The contest opened up with an unassisted goal from Harvard’s sophomore midfielder Maeve McMahon less than a minute into the first half. McMahon’s goal was followed by two goals from the Pride’s Parella and Drew Shapiro.
Parella was on fire, scoring yet another two goals to give the pride a 4-2 lead with less than five minutes to go in the half. The Crimson was able to then score another two goals to tie the game 4-4 at the half.
Harvard started off the second half with a goal from the Crimson’s Ashley Todd, making it her second unassisted goal of the game. Within a minute Parella came back for the pride and scored her fourth goal of the day on the man-up advantage, tying the game yet again 5-5. The girls at Harvard were able to break that tie within seconds thanks to a goal by Julia Glynn.
With less than 10 minutes to go in regulation, the Pride was down by two, but assisted by Parella, senior attacker Sam Lenox was able to score the final goal for Hofstra, making it 7-6.
But the Pride’s efforts on defense throughout the remainder of the game, combined with senior goaltender Kelsey Gregerson’s 10 game saves weren’t enough. The Crimson was able to score three goals, two being in the last minute of play, for a final score of 10-6.
The Crimson was led by sophomore attack Marisa Romeo with four goals, as well as Maeve McMahon with one goal, one assist and two ground balls.
Over on the Pride’s end, other large contributors throughout the game included April Ianetta with a career-high six ground balls and forced six turnovers, and Brittan Altomare leading with five draw controls.
When speaking about the game, the Pride’s head coach Shannon Smith said, “We shot ourselves in the foot on the offensive side of the field. We had 20 shots, six of them went in and we missed 14 of them. Out of the 14, seven of them went high to the goalies stick, and you can’t win a lacrosse game when you shoot into the goalies stick.”
The Pride look to improve their 2-1 record this Saturday, Feb. 28, and will host the defending national champions from The University of Maryland. Faceoff is at 1:00 p.m. at James M. Shuart Stadium.
