FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Paulina DiFatta made 16 saves – breaking the Fairfield University Women's Lacrosse single-season record – to lead the Stags to a 14-5 win over visiting Iona in the MAAC Championship First Round on Saturday at Rafferty Stadium. Fairfield advances to the semifinal round, where the third-seeded Stags will meet second-seeded Monmouth on Thursday, May 3 at 3 p.m. Next week's action will be hosted by top-seeded Marist in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
DiFatta's 16 saves today give her 179 on the season to surpass the 176 stops made by Kandiss Kulp in the 2000 campaign. DiFatta also scooped up a pair of ground balls and was credited with one caused turnovers. She has started every game of the Stags in her first active season and owns every decision on Fairfield's 11-6 record.
Today's defensive performance matched the Stags' season-opening 14-5 win over Holy Cross as the fewest goals surrendered this season. In addition to DiFatta's 16 saves,
Kennedy Slater posted two caused turnovers and four ground balls on the back line.
Erin Bauman also collected four ground balls for the Stags.
The attack was led by a hat trick from
Brooke Gallagher and a four-point day – two goals and two assists – for
Brenna Connolly. Connolly extended her program records in assists to 38 this season and 77 in her career. Her 69 total points this spring are the seventh most in Fairfield history.
Olivia Russell netted a pair of goals to run her team-leading total to 34.
Kathleen Hulseman also scored two goals with single tallies coming from
Kelly Horning,
Taylor Mitchell,
Lily Crager,
Meaghan Graham and
Bridget Weill.
Diana DeVita handed out a pair of assists, while Hulseman and
Lauren Martinelli each distributed one. Russell (34 goals), Mitchell (33) and Connolly (31) are only the second trio of Stags to score 30 or more goals in the same season since 2011.
Erin Mammele – Fairfield's standard bearer for draw controls – grabbed five more today to run her total to 108 this season. She is also now the only Stag with more than 200 career draw controls (202). Horning and Crager added three draw controls apiece as Fairfield led Iona on the restart, 12-8.
Iona (8-10) also got a strong performance from its netminder as Shannon McCaffrey made 14 stops. Offensively, five different Gaels accounting for the scoring with goals coming from Pamela Giordano, Kaitlyn Becker, Jenna Tolzmann, Maureen Murphy and Libby Miller.
The contest started with Fairfield nabbing a 2-1 lead at the 23:43 mark before a 10-minute scoring drought. The stalemate was broken by Tolzmann's free-position shot to knot the contest at 2-2. At that point, the Stags went on the game's first run with three straight tallies to open up a 5-2 advantage with 3:09 remaining in the half. The Gaels snapped the run on a Giordano goal, but the Stags responded with two quick goals just before the intermission. After Crager's goal with 17 seconds to go, Fairfield won the ensuing draw control as the ball quickly found Connolly. The senior beat her defender and McCaffrey to rattle the cage with six seconds to go, sending the Stags into the locker room with a 7-3 advantage.
The Stags' momentum carried through the break as goals from Gallagher, Mitchell and Hulseman ran the margin to 10-3. Iona scratched out a pair of second-half goals – both on rebounds after DiFatta made the initial stop – before the Stags netted the day's final four goals as markers from Gallagher, Connolly, Graham and Weill rounded out the 14-5 final.
The Stags now head to Poughkeepsie, where their 13th consecutive MAAC Championship appearance continues on Thursday, May 3 at 3 PM against second-seeded Monmouth. The other side of bracket will feature host and top seed Marist challenging the winner of tonight's Canisius/Niagara game at 7 p.m.
