FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The Fairfield University women's lacrosse team heads into Saturday on a two-game winning streak after most recently defeating Sacred Heart 14-10 on Wednesday afternoon. The Stags will travel to Durham, New Hampshire to take on the University of New Hampshire Wildcats at noon.
Fairfield (3-2) vs. University of New Hampshire (2-3): The Stags and Wildcats will meet on Saturday for the ninth time in program history. Fairfield is 3-5 against New Hampshire and last season fell 9-7 at home on March 6.
Scouting the Wildcats: New Hampshire is 2-3 this season and in their last game they topped Holy Cross 16-6 on March 2. Senior attack Nicole Grote leads the Wildcats with 13 points off six goals and a team-high seven assists. Their leading goal scorer is sophomore Carly Wooters who has nine on the season. In cage, sophomore Kate Clancy has made all five starts for New Hampshire. The goalkeeper posts 44 saves, an 11.02 goals against average, and a .458 save percentage.
Last Time Out: Behind Riley Hellstein's second six-goal outing of the season, the Fairfield women's lacrosse team was able to outlast Sacred Heart 14-10 on Wednesday afternoon. Hellstein tied a career-high with six goals and set a new career-high with seven points, adding one assist on the day.
Senior Chelsey Sidaras played a huge game in net, making key stops on a few point blank shots, she finished the day with eight saves. The defense around her caused 11 total turnovers led by three each from Melissa Laible and Julieanne Mascera.
On offense the Stags were led by seven points from Hellstein, followed by Alex Fehmel with five (3 goals, 2 assists). Mascera, Maeve Quinn, and Lily Crager each had two points on the day, while Brenna Connolly posted one to round out the Fairfield scorers.
Racking Up the Points: Three Stags now have double digit point streaks after Wednesday's victory over Sacred Heart. Maeve Quinn finished with two goals to extend her scoring streak to 10. Julieanne Mascera tallied two assists to bring her streak to 17. And junior Alex Fehmel had five points in the win and has now tallied at least one point in 26 consecutive contests.
Hellstein's on Fire: Junior Riley Hellstein now has two six-goal outings, including a seven point performance against Sacred Heart. She is Fairfield's leader with 19 points and 18 goals this season. The midfielder ranks 16th nationally with 3.60 goals per game.
Free is for Me: Both Riley Hellstein and Julieanne Mascera rank among the nation's best in free position goals per game. Hellstein posts 1.40 free position goals, tied for third best in the country, while Mascera scores 1.00 per game tied for 10th.
Controlling the Draw: Colleen Reynolds and Riley Hellstein are two of the best at collecting the ball after a draw control. Hellstein leads the team with 4.80 draws per game, 20th best in the country. Reynolds posts 4.20 per game, 27th best in the nation.
Looking Ahead: Fairfield will continue on their road trip, travelling to Denver, Colorado on March 13 for a match up with the University of Denver Pioneers at 3:00 pm.
