FAIRFIELD, Conn. – A game highlighted by a number of career accolades saw the Fairfield University women's lacrosse team improve to a 2-0 start in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play with a 20-4 victory over Marist Saturday afternoon. The win bumps the Stags to 7-3 on the year as they have now won five of their last six games including a five-game losing streak coming in.
One of the major highlights on the afternoon came from the Stags' top draw taker in Nicolette LaVista who set a new program record with 12 draw controls on the day. The career day also pushes her past 200 draw controls for her career, and she now sits in sole possession of second place on the all-time draw controls mark at 204, needing to reach 272 to pass Erin Mammele '19 for the all-time career total. Rylee Harrell also had six draws on the day, giving her 106 for her career after reaching the century mark at Iona Wednesday. For the season she now sits at 52 draw controls which is tied for the seventh most in a single season in program history.
In addition, Olivia Doody led a group of nine goal scorers with five goals and six total points, with her five goals a career-best, while Ellie Grefenstette led the point totals with eight off a hat trick and season-high five assists. Elizabeth Talluto tied a personal best with seven points on the day with four goals and a trio of assists, and both Libby Rowe and Grace Slater added a pair of goals. Amanda Kozak helped round out the point totals with a goal and an assist, as 10 different Fairfield players registered at least one point.
Beyond the draw on the defensive side, Lindsay Barnes and Julia Rigolizzo each forced four turnovers, and a trio of players forced two apiece to pace 19 caused as a team compared to just eight turnovers by the offense. Barnes also paced the ground balls totals with five of the Stags' 26 on the afternoon, followed by four from Rigolizzo and three from Grefenstette.
The Stags took just 32 seconds to get on the board, but Marist was able to answer less than a minute later to level the score. Grefenstette and Talluto would then score and assist on the next two for Fairfield and Grefenstette would open the day scoring or assisting on the first five goals of the game. Doody would net wo and Row would net one in the opening quarter as Marist would add one more to set the score at a topsided 8-3 after just 15 minutes of action.
With 11 goals already scored it took just 89 seconds for the Stags as Grefenstette would net her second goal and sixth point of the afternoon to go up 9-3. Havign scored back-to-back across the two quarters, the Stags would go score 10 unanswered through the start of the third quarter, with Doody scoring at the 11:39 mark of that frame to make it 17-3.
From there the Red Foxes would net their first goal in 26:50, but that would be their only goal of the frame, before two more from the Stags to end the quarter made it a 15-goal advantage at 19-4. Brooke Marotti would net her first of the campaign to open the final period.
Now 2-0 in league play, Fairfield women's lacrosse will continue its homestand in the midweek with an in-state showdown against Quinnipiac on tap Wednesday afternoon. Opening draw in the battle of the MAAC's Nutmeg State contingent is slated for 3:00 p.m. from Conway Field at Rafferty Stadium.
