The Stony Brook women’s lacrosse team was busy over Spring Break, trying to salvage their season, and keep a respectable face.
On April 4, the Seawolves played host to the 7-3 Boston University Terriers, who came to LaValle Stadium ranked 12th in the nation. The Seawolves began the day 3-9 and put up a tough, robust fight that ended just out of their reach. The loss extended their losing streak to six games.
The game started off with a bang, with Boston taking a 1-0 lead off a free position shot on junior goalie Mickey Cahill, (Bay Shore, NY). Stony Brook answered less than two minutes later with an unassisted rip from senior Kaitlin Leggio, (Bay Shore, NY). The tying goal was Leggio’s 28th of the season, good enough for the team lead in goals on the year. But Leggio’s day was far from over. In the span of the next three minutes, three goals were scored almost at will.
The Terriers broke the tie with an unassisted shot from McKinley Curro, but Stony Brook answered half a minute later with a blistering shot from sophomore Victoria Cable, (Oakton, VA) off a beautiful feed from senior attacker Kim Wodiska, (Lake Ronkonkoma, NY). Wodiska then joined the party with a goal of her own from the free position, her 12th of the year, to break a 2-2 tie.
The wheels then started to come off the bus as Boston proceeded to go on a 6-0 run, including a hat trick from Sarah Dalton, to take an 8-3 lead.
Not content to sit back and watch the Terriers take over the game, Stony Brook came alive to score four more goals before the end of the half. Unfortunately, Boston answered and traded every goal Stony Brook offered up. With a half over, the Terriers were up 11-7. Goals from Courtney Bertolone, a sophomore from Farmingville, NY, Samantha Djaha, a sophomore from East Islip, NY, and two more goals to complete the hat trick from Kaitlin Leggio, capped the scoring.
The second half provided “less” action with 12 goals being scored rather than a hefty 18, but Stony Brook tried scratching and crawling their way back into the game. Not helping were the two goals the Terriers scored in a blink of an eye, to pad their lead to six goals. Jenna Celano, a senior from Farmingdale, NY, stopped the bleeding with a quick shot off of a Leggio feed to start the scoring. Melissa Cook helped the team pull back to within four goals with an unassisted goal, with 23 and a half minutes left.
Sarah Dalton proved to be the pesky middie of the day by scoring her fifth goal of the game, but Cable answered with her own notch at 10:50 of the second half. The Seawolves scored three more goals, including Leggio’s fourth, but at the end of the day the Terriers proved to be too much, and behind Dalton’s seven goals in the game, Boston held off Stony Brook for a 17-13 finish.
A hard fought game proved to be not enough, for a team in the midst of a six game losing streak, with three games left in the season.
Yet all was not lost. Stony Brook would not give in, and head coach Allison Comito would see to it that this slide would end once and for all.
With a week of training and words of encouragement, the Seawolves took on the Bearcats of rival Binghamton University this past Saturday, at LaValle Stadium.
Binghamton came to the Island with an equally unimpressive, yet deceiving, 3-9 record.
Stony Brook stormed out of the gates, determined to set aside an ugly losing streak. Getting off to a good start was pertinent, and get off to a good start they did. Senior middie Amy Hallion, from Glenelg, South Australia, got the Seawolves going with a free position shot four minutes into the game. The Bearcats and Seawolves then traded goals back and forth to end up at 2-2, with two Binghamton goals sandwiching a Cable goal, with an assist from steady shot-feeder Wodiska.
Then, something miraculous happened. Perhaps it was something in the wind on this dreary day, or the fact that a losing streak was starting to sting, but the Seawolves then went crazy.
Like many occasions against themselves throughout the season, the Seawolves went on a 7-0 run with goals from Leggio, two each from freshman Abby Ford, (Baltimore, MD) and Victoria Cable, which handed her a hat trick in the first half, Kim Wodiska, and Samantha Djaha.
With the flurry of goals stopped by two Binghamton goals, one with no time left on the clock, the Seawolves ran into the locker room with a defiant 9-4 lead.
The two teams traded goals back and forth within the first 16 minutes of the second half, to end up at 12-7, with notable goals from Kaitlin Leggio, her astounding 33rd goal of the season, and two goals from Melissa Cook, who also assisted on Leggio’s goal, giving her three points in the 16 minutes.
The closest Binghamton got to tying the game was four minutes later, when they pulled in to score two goals with nine minutes left in the game.
Victory, however, was in the air, and the fat lady was clearing out her throat preparing to sing as Stony Brook sealed a long awaited victory, with four goals in the remaining minutes from Cable, Ford, and two from Celano, and behind a strong and audacious showing in net from Mickey Cahill, the Seawolves broke their losing streak with a 16-10 win.
The Seawolves will have a week to savor this rare victory and have a chance to go on a more positive streak, the winning variety, when the Great Danes of Albany, another rival, travels to Stony Brook on April 18.
