The No.11 Stony Brook Women’s Lacrosse team traveled far and wide over spring break, looking to earn three major road victories with games against two nationally ranked teams.

However, Stony Brook fell short, losing to No. 13 Northwestern 7-6 on Saturday and to No. 9 USC 14-10 on Monday. On Wednesday, however, the team trounced San Diego State, 19-5.

It was a tale of two halves against the No. 13 Wildcats. The Seawolves were on fire early, scoring five goals in the first half, with junior attacker Courtney Murphy accounting for three of them. Stony Brook took a 5-4 lead heading into halftime, but Northwestern held the Seawolves to one goal in the second half to pull off the come from behind victory, 7-6.

Once again, a tale of two halves plagued the Seawolves on Monday. The Trojans were firing on all cylinders early, scoring 11 goals in the first half after USC only scored four goals in a 7-4 loss to Stony Brook last season.

The Seawolves pulled freshman goalkeeper Anna Tesoriero after she gave up eight goals in 25 minutes of play. The second half was a much better one for the Seawolves, with the team scoring six goals and holding the Trojans to only three. This included a 4-0 run for the Seawolves which brought the score to 12-9 with 12:25 left in the second half. However, the comeback fell short, as the Trojans held onto their lead to win by four.

Stony Brook’s win against San Diego State was never in doubt, as the team lead from start to finish. Murphy continued her hot streak with five goals for Stony Brook, the squad scorching San Diego State’s junior goalkeeper Katie Merritt with 11 goals in only 25 minutes of play.

Stony Brook added three more goals to that lead to head into the break up 14-2. The Seawolves coasted to the finish after halftime, scoring five more goals and only giving up three to win by a score of 19-5.

Murphy was the star for Stony Brook during this three-game road trip. She now has a total of 23 goals on the season six contests into the 2016 campaign. She now only needs three more goals to break the program record for most goals in a career, currently held by Demmianne Cook with 158 scores.

IT has been a tough start for Stony Brook in the early goings of the season. Of its first six matches, three have been against ranked opponents in USC, Northwestern and Florida. All three of those games resulted in losses for Stony Brook. However, after crushing San Diego State, Stony Brook has to face only two more teams that are nationally ranked for the remainder of the season.

Those teams are No. 11 Stanford and No 19 John Hopkins on March 26 and Apr. 17, respectively. Both matches will take place at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium. 

Stony Brook will head home and begin a five-game homestand against Delaware on Saturday at 1 p.m..