It’s always a dogfight in the rivalry game between the Seawolves and Great Danes. Saturday was no different, as the No. 5 Stony Brook women’s lacrosse team defeated the University of Albany with a final score of 18-11. With their 46th straight win against conference opponents, including playoffs, the Seawolves continued their dominance in the America East and showcased their ability to pull through when games get tough.

“They’re a really good team,” head coach Joe Spallina said of the Great Danes in a postgame press conference with The Statesman. “I think that’s the best version of those guys that we have seen, as far as just being complete. They’re very complete in all three facets: on the draw, offensively and defensively. And a rivalry game’s a rivalry game. They’re always tricky, and you gotta be able to go with the ebb and flow.”

The Seawolves shot out like a cannon in the first half, scoring within 35 seconds and drilling the Danes 10-3 through the majority of the first half. Albany seemingly had no answer for the Seawolves’ offensive, as senior midfielder Siobhan Rafferty and graduate midfielder Ally Kennedy each scored a hat trick.

Graduate attacker Taryn Ohmiller had three assists and a goal, and the attack tandem of senior Bridget Considine and sophomore Kailyn Hart had goals of their own, all before Albany could get on their feet.

At the very end of the first half, however, Albany notched two goals going into the break. And when they came out, the Great Danes scored another two to bring the score within three. Needing momentum, senior midfielder Rayna Sabella and senior attacker Jess Arline put goals in to stop the Great Danes in their tracks. 

After another Albany goal, graduate midfielder Kaeli Huff scored two of the next three goals to effectively bury the game, while freshman midfielder Jaden Hampel scored the “icing-on-the-cake” goal.

Kennedy led the scoring barrage with a season-high six goals, one late post-shot miss shy of her career-high she set against UAlbany in 2019. 

“I think our offense is really starting to come together,” Kennedy said. “Little by little, we are showing flashes of greatness in each game and we just need to keep building on that.”

Meanwhile, Ohmiller continued to climb the national assists leaderboard with a staggering seven on the day, which ties her career high.

As she put it, “Everyone’s just getting open for me, and that just makes it easy.”

Stony Brook will now take on Hofstra, a team that is climbing up the national board and will be the Seawolves’ final non-conference opponent of the season.

“Hofstra is a very good team,” Spallina said. “They have one of the most explosive goal scorers in the country [in senior attacker Alyssa Parrella], so we are gonna have to be really good defensively. We gotta control draws, which is a huge part of this game and they are very good at. We really just gotta keep evolving. It’s back to work on Monday and we just gotta line them up and knock them down no matter who it is. We’ve happy we got a game to play.”

They will have that game at home on Thursday, March 25 at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium, before a three-game road trip against conference opponents.