Stags Blow Away Pioneers on Windy Wednesday at SHU
FAIRFIELD, Conn. – An offensive onslaught across town saw the Fairfield University women's lacrosse team blow away their crosstown rivals in a 15-7 win over Sacred Heart Wednesday afternoon. Eight different players netted goals for the Stags in today's action, led by four goals from Ellie Grefenstette.
Fairfield's offense assisted on ten of the 15 goals scored in the win, as Libby Rowe co-led the point totals with a single goal and three assists along with three goals and one assist from Amanda Kozak. Elsewhere on the scoresheet, Grace Slater and Elizabeth Talluto each netted a pair, with the latter of the two also adding an assist as well, while Maggie Fort and Sarah Bucher rounded out the scorers with a single goal apiece.
On the other side of the ball Haley Burns led the ground ball numbers with three for the afternoon, part of 15 collected as a team. Rowe and Harrell each led the team with two caused turnovers, while in the cage, Casey Collins made eight saves.
The Stags came out of the gates firing, opening the match on a 6-0 run which began just over three minutes into action from Kozak, her ninth of the year. Rylee Harrell would double her team's advantage less than 90 seconds later, and Fairfield would go up 5-0 by the midway point of the first quarter. With 2:47 to go Grace Slater would break a five-minute scoring drought in the contest just prior to the first goal of the day by SHU, their only score of the frame to put the visitors up 6-1 after one quarter.
In the second period, Fairfield would strike early once again with two goals in the opening four minutes by Grefenstette and Rowe to push a seven-score advantage. The pair of goals would spark the start of an eventual seven goal run by the Stags that would carry into the second half and included a pair of woman-up goals by Sarah Bucher and Talluto, who had two scores during the stretch.
Leading by 12-1 heading coming out of the halftime break, it took just 84 seconds when play resumed for the Stags to make it 13 on the scoreboard on a goal by Kozak, as the half would enter with running time already in effect. The Pioneers would counter with their first goal in 22:04, but would score back-to-back goals, and three in the period, separated by a Grefenstette goal for the Stags with 3:53 to go. The fourth quarter saw SHU net three of the four goals in the frame, separated by another single score by Grefenstette.
With the non-conference season now in the books, Fairfield women's lacrosse will look ahead to its next match on Mar. 29 when they open the MAAC calendar at Iona.
