FAIRFIELD, Conn. - After going down by three goals after 15 minutes of play, Fairfield University women's lacrosse turned it on the second quarter, outscoring Iona 6-2 in the frame en route to an 18-11 win over the Gaels Wednesday afternoon. With the win the Stags improve to 6-3 on the year, and 1-0 in MAAC play.
The Stags offense rattled off 18 goals against Iona, tied for the second-most goals scored this season, after posting the same total back in the season opener against Holy Cross on Feb. 12. For the second time in the last four contests, Olivia Doody scored eight points to lead the team, bringing her season total to 23, after coming into the year without a point to her name.
"[Olivia's] spread is good, the fact that she's assisting and scoring, that's something that's unique," said Coach Field. "She's able to see the field really well and distribute the ball well, but she also knows when it's time to call her own number. We definitely have a myriad of scorers, but it's nice to see her having multi-goal, multi-assists games."
As team Fairfield ripped 39 shots in the game compared to 32 to for Iona, outscoring the Gaels 17-7 in the final three quarters. The Stags also spread the wealth on offense once again as eight different players each tallied at least one point in the contest. In addition, 12 of the 18 goals scored by the Fairfield offense came off of an assist, led by Doody with five helpers, while she also scored a hat-trick to pace the point totals as well with eight.
"I think the amount of assisted goals we had was really awesome, "said Head Coach Laura Field. "that shows a lot of unselfish play on offense and is necessary for how we want to play going forward, adjustments we want to make, and getting everyone involved."
Elsewhere on the score sheet, Amanda Kozak netted a hat trick as well, while Elizabeth Talluto tallied four goals to pace the team in that category. A trio of Stags netted a pair of goals each, and Rylee Harrell and Maggie Fort each added a singles score. Ellie Grefenstette dished out three assist to tally five points on the day, ahead of a two from Libby Rowe, and a single helper from both Talluto and co-captain Kelly Horning.
Defensively, the Stags collected 18 of 31 ground balls in the match, while the two sides were level on caused turnovers, forcing 13 each. Talluto would pace the ground ball totals for Fairfield, scooping up four ahead of Keyla Bay and co-captain Caroline Mangan with three apiece. Julia Rigolizzo forced a team-high three turnovers, one more than Harrell who forced a pair, and five other players who caused one. On the draw LaVista led the team with five controls, followed by four from Horning, three each from Rowe and Harrell, and a pair from Katie Bergen.
"We were really strong in controlling the draw, and Katie, a freshman really stepped up when we needed her to," said Head Coach Laura Field. "that really shows depth at the position, Nicollette also performed well for us."
Iona struck early and often in the opening period, scoring the first three goals of the contest, before Maggie Fort found the back of the net to put Fairfield on the board. That would be the only score for the home side in the opening frame, but the Gaels answered back 30 seconds later to take a three-goal lead after 15 minutes of play.
After a quiet first half on offense, Amanda Kozak found the back of the net to spark a three-goal run by the Stags to level the match at four with 9:15 to play in the first half. Iona would score two of the next three to take a 6-5 lead, before Fairfield scored back-to-back goals to take a one score advantage into the break.
Out of the half, Iona would net a goal just under four minutes in to tie the game, but it took just 27 seconds for Fairfield to answer back and regain the lead. The Gaels would score one more goal with exactly five minutes to go to tie at 9-9, but that would be the closest the visitors would get, as the Stags found the back of the net four times in the closing stages of the quarter and take a four-goal lead into the final frame.
In the fourth, Fairfield would extend their scoring run to five with a goal from Grefenstette, before LaVista was sent off with her second yellow card of the match, setting up a woman-up score for the Gaels to bring the deficit back to four. Rigolizzo would also receive a yellow less than three minutes late, but the Stags were able to kill off the penalty, and even score down a player with 7:39 to go. That goal, which came from Talluto would be the first of three straight goals by Fairfield, as Talluto scored once more and Libby Rowe tacked on her second goal of the match to extend the advantage to seven, the largest lead of the day. Iona would tack on one more, before another score by Grefenstette of off a Doody assist put the difference back to eight, as the Stags improved to 21-0 all-time against the Gaels.
Fairfield women's lacrosse is back in action Saturday making a trip up to upstate New York to take on Marist in the first of three straight matches on the road. Opening draw against the Red Foxes is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. from Tenney Stadium in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
