Midfielder Siobahn Rafferty and attacker Kailyn Hart each scored five goals as the Stony Brook women’s lacrosse team earned its first win of the season with a 20-3 dismantling of the Dartmouth Big Green at home on Sunday.
Hart and Rafferty combined for 15 of the Seawolves’ (1-1) 39 shots, while Dartmouth (1-1) took only nine shots. Stony Brook also had 13 caused turnovers to Darthmouth’s three.
The Seawolves were playing their backups by the third period.
“We had one of the best weeks of practice we’ve had as long as I’ve been here,” head coach Joe Spallina said in a postgame press conference. “We played unselfish offensively. I think we were suffocating. For us, you can’t just shut down one player.”
It was clear the game would be a blowout almost immediately. After some early miscues on defense, Stony Brook moved down the field seemingly effortlessly and routinely escaped from crowds of three or four defenders to earn assists.
The Seawolves took a 6-0 lead 10 minutes into the game, with three of those goals coming from Rafferty. All she had to do was stand in front of the net and fire, thanks to a pair of impressive assists from Jaden Hampel and Charlotte Verhulst. Hampel found Rafferty just as Hampel was about to lose possession in front of the net, and Rafferty grabbed Verhulst’s pass from among a mosh pit of defenders 30 seconds later.
“That was the focus in practice, just moving the ball well,” Rafferty said. “I think we executed well, so I’m really proud of our team.”
The most impressive assist of the day was midfielder Clare Levy’s mad dash across the field as the first period expired. After weaving through almost every Dartmouth defender, Levy found Hart from across the field, who fired a shot into the top right corner of the net.
“[I] just went out there and it was my day,” Hart said. “We know how good we are. We know we can beat anyone you put us against.”
Stony Brook slowed the pace down in the second half after Spallina removed most of the starters from the game, but not before Rafferty scored her final goal, shooting without breaking step after catching a pass from Levy.
The lineup change allowed midfielder Molly LaForge to score the first goal of her career.
Goalkeeper Kamron Halsall made her season debut when she replaced Charlie Campbell in the third period.
Dartmouth entered the game fresh off an 11-3 win over the America East’s New Hampshire, meaning the Seawolves have already sent a message to the rest of the conference.
Stony Brook will play No. 7 Florida next week in the first of three straight contests against ranked teams. Spallina pointed out that Stony Brook has won just one of its last six games in Florida, but the players don’t seem to care.
“Our theme for this year is we don’t care who we’re facing; we can beat anyone,” Hart said. “We will play anyone. We don’t care the name, we don’t care who you are. We’re ready to win and we’re going to win.”
