On an overcast Friday, April 19, the Hofstra women’s lacrosse team lost 13-12 to the Towson University Tigers at James M. Shuart Stadium in their final regular season home game. The team was led by Alyssa Parrella, who tied a career-high seven goals and set a new single-season program record for points, with 86. Also setting a record was Darcie Smith, who set the single-season school record for most draw control wins with 100.
Before the first draw control, the Pride honored their five graduating seniors with a ceremony. Jenna Budd, Tessa Sinatro, Sara Guarascio, Annalise Martin and Kaitlyn Shanahan will be leaving the team after this year.
Hofstra leapt on the Tigers first as Parrella and Alexa Mattera scored two goals within the first two minutes to give the Pride a 2-0 lead.
Towson answered one minute later with their own goal from midfielder Shelby Stack to pull back within a goal to tie the game.
At the 21-minute mark, the Pride was unfazed as Arianna Esposito fired a rocket past Kiley Keating of Towson to make the score 3-1.
Towson’s offense woke up in the next 10 minutes as they scored four unanswered goals to both tie and then give the Tigers a 5-3 lead.
Parrella found the back of the net one final time before the half ended to pull the Pride to within one, but at the end of the half, Towson was up 5-4.
Hofstra outshot Towson 17-14 in the first half and dominated the draw control, winning 9-1.
At the start of the second half, the Pride was able to tie the game within three minutes off a Parrella goal to make the score 5-5.
A minute later, Towson’s Kerri Thornton found the back of the net for a man-up goal to give Towson the lead 6-5. This sparked another Towson rally, where the Tigers scored two more times in five minutes to make the score 8-5 with 20 minutes remaining. Natalie Sulmonte posted the other two goals during the run.
The Pride then began to claw their way back, as Mattera found the back of the net along with Camryn Faith to make the score 8-7. This was Faith’s first collegiate goal of her Hofstra career.
Then a minute later, Katie Whelan scored another rocket goal for the Pride off a free position shot to again tie things up at 8.
In the next eight minutes, the Tigers and Pride exchanged multiple goals to make the score 11-11, as neither team could find an advantage.
In the final three minutes, the game came down to the wire, but with one minute remaining Stack slipped the ball past Pride goalie Jess Smith to score the game-winning goal off a free position shot for the 13-12 victory.
The Pride again outshot the Tigers in the second half 20-15 and won more draw controls 9-7.
The Pride fall to 2-2 in Colonial Athletic Association play and still have two games remaining in the season, both on the road. They will be back in action on Sunday, April 21, when they travel to Delaware to face the Blue Hens. Opening draw control is set for 1 p.m.
Image Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
