The Stony Brook Women’s Lacrosse team showed their age early before displaying their maturity late in their 13-5 win over New Hampshire on Friday night at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium.

Although the Seawolves trailed 1-0 early, the final outcome never was really in doubt. After playing tight lacrosse early on, coach Joe Spallina was not going to baby his young players.

“I didn’t settle them down, I kind of got into them a little bit,” Spallina said. “I needed to give them a little shock therapy and kind of told them the finality of it and [said], ‘if we don’t stop performing we’re going to be on the outside looking in on Sunday and if you want to watch somebody else steal your trophy in your own backyard, just let me know’.”

The Seawolves heard Spallina’s wake-up call loud and clear, and although they did not play their best lacrosse, they did enough to distance themselves from the Wildcats on the scoreboard.

As the game went on, the dynamic freshman duo of Courtney Murphy and Dorrien Van Dyke began to impose their will on New Hampshire, cutting through the defense to get good looks right in front of the net.

Murphy, the nation’s leader in goals scored for freshmen, littered the stat sheet with six goals, fulfilling Spallina’s early season prediction that she would score 50 goals on the season. The attacker added a ground ball for Stony Brook in the win.

Van Dyke, who has been neck and neck with Murphy in goals all season long, scored two goals and snatched three ground balls. The Long Island native was named America East Rookie of the Year yesterday, along with being recognized on the America East All-Conference first team.

Given it is their first season of college lacrosse, Spallina does not see them as newcomers.

“They’re growing up these kids, they’re not freshmen, they’ve never performed like freshmen and we’re proud of them,” Spallina said. “They’re a big part of our success.”

Murphy acknowledged that falling behind early may not have been the best start, but that once the game really got going, normalcy resumed.

“I was definitely nervous in the beginning, but once I scored my first goal I was more calm and collected,” Murphy said.

The Seawolves will play the winner the  Albany and Vermont matchup in the championship game on Sunday. Inside Lacrosse predicted the Great Danes to come out on top in their matchup and in the finals against Stony Brook, while Vermont just took down the Seawolves last weekend.

Either way, the Seawolves have a tough game on their hands, and will need to be on the top of their game to advance to their second straight NCAA tournament.