The 2023-24 NCAA year is officially underway at Stony Brook University, as the school’s women’s soccer team kicked things off on Thursday night at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium.

The Seawolves (0-1-0) did not get off to the start that they were hoping for. Playing host to the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Minutewomen (1-0-0), Stony Brook fell 2-1 due to some late-game defensive lapses.

Both defenses held strong in the first half, with neither side attempting more than four shots. The match remained scoreless until the 60th minute, when Stony Brook failed to clear the ball from the box coming off a corner kick by the Minutewomen. The ball bounced its way over to UMass forward Ashley Lamond, who was on her own just to the left of the box. Isolated from the Seawolves’ defense, Lamond slipped a shot past the dive of goalkeeper Nicolette Pasquarella to give UMass a 1-0 lead.

The Seawolves had trouble generating opportunities on offense all night, but got some help from a UMass miscue in the 75th minute to draw even. Coming off a Stony Brook corner kick, one of the Minutewomen defenders was called for a push-off in the box, sending midfielder Linn Beck to the penalty spot with a chance to tie the match. Beck delivered, rifling one to the right of UMass goalkeeper Bella Mendoza to knot the game up at one apiece.

After the match, head coach Tobias Bischof praised Beck for her clutch goal.

“It’s never an easy situation, especially when you’re down 1-0,” Bischof said in a postgame interview with The Statesman. “But, she kept her head up, did a good job and … gave us a chance to get back in this game how we wanted to.”

The deadlock only lasted another 10 minutes before UMass took the lead again — this time, for good. With just less than six minutes remaining, the Minutewomen pushed the ball up the field behind a clean through ball from midfielder Ella Curry to Lamond. Lamond then connected with forward Chandler Pedolzky, who promptly set up a shot for midfielder Bella Recinos.

Recinos ripped one towards Pasquarella’s left, but she laid out and made a full-extension save. But UMass forward Nia Hislop was there for the rebound and buried the loose ball in the back of the net to go back in front.

Stony Brook had a great chance to tie the game in the next minute after forward Reilly Rich shook a defender off to create space just outside the box. Now with separation, Rich found forward Gabrielle Côté wide open in front of the net. However, Côté’s shot ricocheted off the right woodwork before hitting defender Emma Beattie in the face and bouncing out of bounds.

After that, the Seawolves failed to muster up anything else. The Minutewomen held them off and walked off the field victorious, sending Stony Brook home winless to start the new season.

Though the team had strong stretches on both sides of the ball, Bischof said the team needs to sustain that level of play throughout the game’s entirety in the future.

“I thought we combined pretty well for parts of the game, but unfortunately not for the full 90 minutes,” Bischof said. “This is something we need to work on. We need to be more consistent in how we want to play … and then hopefully we’ll get the results that we’ll be looking for.”

Stony Brook’s defense was solid for most of the night, but weakened later in the match. UMass wound up finishing with nine shots, seven of which were on target. It was the team’s offense that killed its chances to win, as it only attempted nine shots, landing just two on goal.

Due to the time of year, Bischof is not concerned with the offense’s lack of production against UMass.

“It’s quite normal in the beginning of the year,” Bischof said. “We still have to find our timing up front, we have to find our combination play up front. If we do, we hopefully find a way to create more chances.”

Midfielder Gabby Daniels was the only Stony Brook player to record a shot on goal. Beck and forward Lucianna Setteducate led the team on shot attempts with two each.

In net, Pasquarella made a couple of big saves, stopping five of the seven shots that came her way.

Midfielder Allie Palangi — a transfer from Colorado — had her Stony Brook debut cut short by a head injury. Palangi was part of a collision in the second half and left the game bleeding from the head. Her status moving forward is unknown right now.

The Seawolves will look to pick up their first win of the year on Sunday when they host the Bryant Bulldogs at 1 p.m. Bryant won its season opener 1-0 at Rhode Island on Thursday night.