After starting the season 2-0, the Hofstra women’s lacrosse team fell in a close game to Fairfield University, 19-14.

For a game that netted a combined 33 goals, the scoring got off to a slow start.

In fact, nearly 10 minutes of game time went by before the Pride’s Lexi Lenaghan put Hofstra on the board at 22:56 with the her seventh goal of the season.

Carlee Ancona assisted Lenaghan on the play. Not long after the first goal, Ancona assisted Lenaghan yet again, as Lenaghan scored her eighth goal.

The Stags evened the score a few minutes later following a pair of scores from Riley Hellstein – her ninth and 10th goals of the season.

This was a theme that was consistent in the highly competitive first half – whenever one team scored, the other did not take long to return the favor. 

At one point in the first half the Pride had a 5-2 lead, though this soon evaporated after Fairfield scored five consecutive times, to take a 7-5 lead.

Hofstra scored six more goals in the first half to Fairfield’s seven.

Fairfield went into halftime with a small lead, 9-8, largely from Hellstein, who totaled four goals in the half.

Drew Shapiro (her seventh goal), Becky Conto (sixth) and Morgan Knox (first) scored for the Pride in the half. Alyssa Parrella also notched three goals of her own in the half, the first one was assisted by Ancona, but the later two – her 10th and 11th – were unassisted.

For Fairfield, in addition to Hellstein’s four goals, the Stags utilized two Taylor Mitchell goals – her fourth and fifth of the season – as well as Alex Fehmel’s fifth, Scarlett Sulliman’s third and Brenna Connolly’s sixth goal to give the team a lead heading into the intermission.

While the game was still close in the second half, Fairfield was able to break away just enough to secure the victory.

After alternating goals to begin the second half, Fairfield notched three goals in a five-minute span, before Hofstra got on the board again.

Unfortunately for the Pride, it was unable to match the Stags’ high-powered offense toward the end of the second half, leading to Hofstra’s first loss of the season.

Offensively, Parrella led the day for the Pride, notching seven goals.

Lenaghan recorded three more, Shapiro scored twice and Conto and Knox netted one goal a piece.

For Fairfield, Hellstein also scored seven goals. Connolly and Mitchell scored three times, while Sulliman, Fehmel and Hulseman each notched a pair. 

With the loss, Hofstra fell to 2-1 on the season and Fairfield improved to 1-3.

Hofstra next plays the University of Maryland on March 3 at James M. Shuart Stadium beginning at 1 p.m. The Terrapins come in as the No. 1 team in the nation.