FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The scoring came in bunches Saturday afternoon on Conway Field at Rafferty Stadium, as Fairfield University women's lacrosse used a fourth quarter surge to push past the Wagner Seahawks 12-7.
"In large part, we've relied on our offense the last two games, and they did really well in moments and then we needed to bunker down on defense, which I think we did," said Head Coach Laura Field after the game. "We didn't give up a woman-down goal, and we had too many sets playing down, so I'm equally parts proud that we didn't give up a goal, but it's measured because we need to not get those cards in those moments."
Four different players found the back of the net for the Stags and three others tallied one or more assists on the day. Elizabeth Talluto led the offense with four goals, followed by hat-tricks from both Amanda Kozak, who also added an assist, and Grace Slater, notching the first multi-goal performance of her career. Ellie Grefenstette led the assist numbers with three, with Olivia Doody and Libby Rowe tacking on one apiece.
Caroline Mangan led the ground ball totals with five in the game, followed by both Rigolizzo and Macey Daly who each nabbed two, leading a nine-player collective that made up the Stags' 15 ground balls across the afternoon. Mangan also forced a game-best four turnovers by Wagner players as Fairfield forced 13 overall, and at midfield, Rylee Harrell and Brynn Donnelly led the draw control totals with three each.
Wagner opened with the games' first goal just 1:08 into the action, but the Stags would counter less than two minutes after to level the score at one. It only took another 23 seconds before Kozak netted her first of two straight goals to give her side a two-goal advantage, scoring the second with 6:50 to go in the opening stanza. Just before the end of the break Wagner would net one goal back to cut the deficit to one with eight seconds remaining, as starting keeper Pheobe Proctor left the game due to injury.
Casey Collins entered in relief for the duration of the game before the visitors scored a second goal in quick succession to tie the game 13 seconds into the second period. From there Collins and the Stags would find their footing, as that would be the final score of the half for the visitors as the Stags opened what would end up being a five-goal run to end the half. Talluto scored at the 11:59 mark in the frame, followed less than two minutes later by Harrell who would tack on one more just before the break to give the Stags a 6-3 lead after 30 minutes.
"Casey came in and did a good job and started our first two games and did a good job as well, so we know that consistency is there," said Coach Field.
Out of the halftime stoppage, Talluto would find the back of the net 3:01 into play and was followed by Harrell a couple of minutes later to give the Stags their biggest lead of the afternoon. Wagner would halt the Fairfield run 90 seconds later with their first goal in nearly 20 minutes but scored two more in quick succession to cut the lead to two for the Stags going into the fourth.
"I think we have to be careful about building a lead and then giving it up for obvious reason, Coach Field stated. "To come out of that and be more resilient and fight our way back into some breathing room in that fourth quarter was a really important thing to see."
It took just under five minutes for the first goal of the frame, with the visitors tacking on another to come within one goal of tying it, before Slater notched her first of two goals in the final seven minutes to reestablish a two-goal advantage. That goal for the visitors would be their final score of the contest as Kozak would capitalize on a free position opportunity with 3:40 to go, giving Fairfield a three-goal cushion and was followed by late scores by Talluto and Slater to set the final scoreline.
"Going forward I think we need to be more careful of mental mistakes, cards, the types of things we've seen in our first couple of games, Coach Field said. "We've proved that we can be resilient, we've proved that we can weather storms, now we need to prove that we can come out strong and stay strong throughout"
Fairfield women's lacrosse will return to action Wednesday when they make a trip to upstate New York to take on Albany. First serve against the Great Danes is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. from Albany, N.Y.
