The Stony Brook Women’s Lacrosse team beat a nationally ranked team in Albany last week, yet managed to fall a spot to No. 17 in the IWLCA Coaches Poll. The Seawolves took that disrespect gracefully, and channeled it into a nine-goal blitz in the opening 13 minutes of the game to beat New Hampshire, 15-5.
The win on Senior Day clinched the right to host the America East Tournament at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium, where the only loss Stony Brook has incurred this season was against powerhouse Florida.
Frankie Caridi, a senior goalkeeper, impressed from the get-go, making a few saves early to allow the Seawolves to build their insurmountable lead. On the day, Caridi improved her nation leading save percentage to .571, making eight saves on the 13 shots she faced.
Senior Alyssa Cardillo made the most of her final regular-season game on Long Island, assisting on seven of the 15 goals that Stony Brook scored, tying her for third-most in school history. The senior added a goal as well to lead the Seawolves with eight points on the day.
To nobody’s surprise, all of those assists went to freshmen, who tallied 12 of the 15 goals that Stony Brook scored on Saturday afternoon. The nation’s leading goal-scorer for freshmen, Courtney Murphy, scored six times to bring her total for the year to 47. With her performance, during which she outscored the Wildcats on her own, Murphy broke Kaitlin Leggio’s record for most goals scored by a freshman in Seawolves history.
Fellow freshman Dorrien Van Dyke isn’t letting Murphy get too far away from her in goal-count, remaining near the top of the rankings with three goals of her own, making 42 on the season.
Freshman Kristin Yevoli also contributed three goals in the effort, putting all three of her shots in the back of the net.
Although coach Joe Spallina did not think the team put forth its best performance, he was still happy that it got an important win and showed some good moments as the America East tournament approaches.
“I think we’ve got a good, complete team that’s growing up and I’m not sure teams are going to be thrilled to see us on their schedule,” Spallina said.
The Seawolves head to Delaware on Tuesday, before they conclude their conference and regular season schedules up in Vermont on Saturday morning.
With their 13th win in their back pocket, Stony Brook will look to beat their record from last season, needing a perfect ending to the regular season, a sweep of the conference tournament and a win in the NCAA tournament to show the world that this is not a rebuilding year for them, but their best season yet.
