Kylie Ohlmiller and Courtney Murphy led the way once again for the No. 6 Seawolves offensively as Stony Brook women’s lacrosse routed UMBC 13-7 in Baltimore on Friday night.
The win against the Retrievers improves the Seawolves’ record to 14-1 on the season and 5-0 in America East conference play. With the win, Stony Brook locked up home-field advantage for the upcoming conference tournament. For the third consecutive year, for a team to dethrone the Seawolves, it will need to defeat them at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium.
Ohlmiller had five points in the contest via a pair of goals and three assists. Murphy scored four goals to bring her seasonal goal total to 50. She joins Demmianne Cook as the only Seawolves attackers to ever reach the 50-goal plateau on multiple occasions.
Taylor Ranftle and Dorrien Van Dyke each had two goals and two assists as well in the match. Amber Kupres scored two goals and had an assist. It was the first time this season the Seawolves have had five players score multiple goals. Stony Brook has scored ten or more goals in nine of its last 11 games as the offense seems to be clicking better as the season goes along.
The 13-7 final score deceives the true dominance the Seawolves imposed in the match. Stony Brook scored the first five goals of the game to lead 5-0 after 15:36 in the first half, asserting its will on an outmatched Retriever defense.
They led by as much as 10-2 after a goal 2:15 into the second half.
The advantage could have been even greater had it not been for stellar play by Kelsey Major, the Retrievers keeper.
Major had eight saves in the match, including a couple of key stops on Murphy that could have allowed the Seawolves attacker to have even a more spectacular game than she ended up with.
Stony Brook dominated on the draws Friday night, winning 14 of 22 faceoffs, something Head Coach Joe Spallina has emphasized throughout the season.
It is an aspect of the game the team has greatly improved; the Seawolves won 47 percent of their draws in the first six games of the season, and have won 56 percent since then.
Stony Brook’s next game is on the road against their Long Island rival, Hofstra, for a 7 p.m. matchup on Tuesday night.
