In America East Conference action on Saturday afternoon at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium, senior Kaitlin Leggio, the leading goal scorer for the Seawolves this season with a whopping 33 goals, firmly solidified her place in Stony Brook lore as one of the greatest scorers in school history. With four goals on the day, two of which were free position shots and one unassisted, Leggio became the Stony Brook women’s lacrosse team’s all-time leader in goals with a career total of 150, breaking the previous record of 148 set back in 2007. Leggio also became the Seawolves’ all-time leader in points, ground balls and faceoffs.
Despite Leggio’s outstanding effort, the Seawolves fell to the Great Danes, 19-9 on Senior Day, the last home game of the season.
Senior Kim Wodiska and sophomore Melissa Cook each tallied a goal and an assist each for Stony Brook. With the loss, Stony Brook’s seventh in eight games, the Seawolves fall to 4-11 and 1-4 in the America East Conference. Attacker Jodi Battaglia led Albany with five goals and three assists to bring the Great Danes to 8-7 and 4-2 in the conference.
Albany got the scoring off to a start with an unassisted goal by Mel Rorie. Trailing 1-0 in the first three minutes, the Seawolves got on the board with back-to-back goals from the middie Cook, unassisted, and senior attacker Jenna Celano, with an assist from Wodiska, just 28 seconds apart.
The lead would prove to be a short-lasting one however, as the Great Danes would tie the score 17 seconds later, but Leggio, finding her scoring touch this day, scored her 34th and 35th goals of the season on free-position shots to help Stony Brook pull ahead and regain a 4-2 lead.
The bane of Stony Brook would then rear its ugly face and bite the Seawolves where it hurts the most. All season long the Seawolves downfall came from goal streaks from the opposing team and today would prove no different. Albany reeled off six straight goals in a 10-minute stretch to take an 8-4 lead with 9:47 left in the first half. Sophomore attack Samantha Djaha stopped the bleeding with a goal at 8:26, to pull the Seawolves to within three goals at 8-5. Albany attacker Melanie Sosnowski would score on a free-position goal with 5:34 left in the first half to give the Great Danes a 9-5 lead heading into the half.
Wodiska would not go quietly into the night, nor would her team as she ripped a free position shot to make it 9-6, her 14th goal of the season. Albany would prove just as resolute as they answered back with another goal streak, scoring the next five goals while taking a 14-6 lead with 20:39 left.
Amy Hallion scored on another free-position shot with 20 minutes remaining to get Stony Brook within seven, 14-7 plenty of time to mount a comeback. With 16 minutes and change left in the game, Cook fed a pass from behind the cage to Leggio, who ripped a shot past the Great Danes goalie to pull within six goals. Leggio would answer again, scoring unassisted at 14:55 to make it a 14-9 game but Albany would prove to be too much to handle as they scored the final five goals of the game to win the game 19-9.
Stony Brook will finish out the 2009 season on the road at Vermont on April 25.
