In a must-win showdown, the No. 5 Stony Brook women’s lacrosse team dominated the No. 11 Princeton Tigers on the road with a 16-8 statement win on Tuesday, March 29.

“I was proud of our effort, this was a huge game for us,” head coach Joe Spallina said in a postgame interview. “When you win a big game on the road, you don’t win with one to two players, and we talk about our depth all the time. We thought our depth was the difference in this game.”

Stony Brook (7-2) won its fifth game in a row and saw seven of its players find the back of the net. Meanwhile, Princeton (6-2) dropped its second straight following a one-goal loss to No. 7 Loyola last week.

On her ninth goal of the season, midfielder Jaden Hampel opened up the scoring as she crept behind the goal to the inside of the fan, whipping it into the net after faking around Princeton. Hampel made another clear shot later on when attacking on the crease. Hampel made the execution when she revolved off of a Princeton defender after she missed the opportunity to take coverage of the extended goal line.

Stony Brook exerted huge amounts of pressure to have solid control of the field. The pressure from attacker Kailyn Hart, who got an assist from midfielder Kyla Zapolski from the left side of the goal, soared in and she scored the second goal of the game off a shot from the eight-meter.

In the last 20 seconds of the first quarter, after a pass from Zapolski, midfielder Rayna Sabella made a clear glide into the net, ending the quarter 4-0 in Stony Brook’s favor. To recover, Princeton tried to gain some power over Stony Brook but was shot down by Stony Brook’s strong defensive line.

Sabella opened the second quarter on a penalty, scoring another goal in the first two minutes on an eight-meter shot. There was a rough flow to the quarter as the Tigers were not only in offside positions, but also received a green card; however, this gave the Seawolves a good advantage.

Having recovered from a past injury, defender Haley Dillon made a statement on the field being fifth in the nation in caused turnovers per game at 2.38.

Hart scored once more on a pass from attacker Jesse Arline; a small shot right at the corner of the net, putting the game at 6-0.

The Tigers finally scored with three minutes left in the first half, making it 7-1. Both sides played the clock out and that ended the first half of the battle between Stony Brook and Princeton.

Stony Brook opened another quarter strong when midfielder Ellie Masera made her first goal of the game right in the weak spot of the defensive block.

The Seawolves secured a man-up goal in the last four minutes of the third quarter, as Hampel, the star of the game, made the ball soar into the net. Hampel led all players with six points off three goals and three assists. The Tigers reciprocated, ending the third quarter down 11-5.

In the fourth, Seawolves goalie Kameron Halsall, who made nine saves in the game, stopped another shot as the Tigers tried to cut into their deficit. Instead, Stony Brook took this opportunity to the other end of the field with a goal from Masera.

“You look at Ellie Masera’s stat line — yeah, she had two goals and two assists, but she also had 12 draw controls. It was such a complete Ally Kennedy-esque stat line with another couple caused turnovers, ground balls, all things you want to see,” Spallina said.

Later in the period, the Seawolves added three more goals, all from midfielder Siobhan Rafferty. The Seawolves gained more speed to receive their final goal from Sabella, making it a 10-score game.

Stony Brook will return to Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium on Friday, April 1 against Arizona State, looking to make it six in a row.