FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The Fairfield University women's lacrosse team dropped to 0-2 in conference play with a 12-8 defeat at the hands of Marist College.
Marist started off the scoring for the game with a goal by Morgan Jaycox just two minutes in. From there, the Stags would score three straight and eventually build a 5-2 lead with 8:07 to play in the first.
Fairfield's scoring started with a great finish by Alex Fehmel off a pass from Riley Hellstein. Julieanne Mascera netted the next two goals for the Stags. The first, gave Lily Crager her first assist of the season and the second was a free position goal to put the Stags up by two.
Following a Red Fox goal, Jenna Fuchs got on the board with her second goal of the season off a pass from Maeve Quinn. And Fairfield's fifth goal came from the stick of Colleen Reynolds.
But Marist would answer right back knotting the score at five with 4:05 remaining in the half. Reynolds tallied her second goal of the day with under a minute to go, but Marist found a way to tie to score before the break. Offsetting fouls with less than 10 seconds to play left keeper Chelsey Sidaras out of position off a restart. That allowed Anna Petrunich to find Olivia Pitonzo for the equalizing goal.
With the momentum of the first half on their side, Marist came out firing and scored the next two goals to build an 8-6 edge. Fuchs cut that lead to one with under 20 minutes to play, but that was the closest Fairfield would get.
The visitors scored the next three goals, and controlled the pace of the game for the remainder of the second half. The Stags tried to rally with three minutes to play with a goal by Hellstein, but just one score was all they could muster.
The Red Foxes iced the game with their final tally by Allison Gionta with just 90 seconds to play and a 12-8 lead.
Sidaras recorded her 10th start in cage this season registering eight saves against 21 Marist shots.
Looking for their first conference win, Fairfield continues MAAC play with a road game on Wednesday, April 6 at Iona at 3:00 pm.
