The No. 2 Stony Brook women’s lacrosse team took down No. 5 USC 14-10 in a battle of top five teams in the country at LeBard Stadium on Friday night. The win was the Seawolves’ season opener and the first of two games in a California state trip.
Redshirt-senior attacker Courtney Murphy and sophomore attacker Taryn Ohlmiller combined for eight of the team’s 14 goals. Murphy scored four goals and had four assists in her first game back with the team since her season-ending ACL injury against Northwestern last season.
“I’m so happy for Murph,” head coach Joe Spallina said in a press release. “She’s worked so hard to get back on the field, and to have this type of day in the opener is incredible. USC paid a ton of attention to [senior attacker Kylie Ohlmiller], and Murph did a great job stepping up for us tonight.”
Senior midfielder Samantha DiSalvo and senior attacker Emma Schait both scored two goals for the Seawolves and junior goalkeeper Anna Tesoriero recorded 10 saves in her first victory of the 2018 season.
“Huge road win for us tonight, I’m really proud of our team,” Spallina said. “There are some things we will work on, but traveling cross-country and beating the No. 5 team in the nation is a great start.”
Stony Brook took a dominant lead early, scoring five of the game’s first seven goals 16 minutes into the game. Murphy scored three of the Seawolves’ five goals. However, the Trojans stormed back, eventually cutting the deficit down to 5-4.
Stony Brook was able to dig deep and go on a 6-0 scoring run to put the team on top of USC 11-4. Stony Brook never looked back and was able to hold off USC’s second-half scoring to close the game out with a 14-10 victory.
The senior Ohlmiller was quiet coming off her historic season, scoring one goal and recording two assists. However, she continues to inch closer to breaking more records. Ohlmiller needs 46 more assists to break the NCAA assists record of 224 by Northwestern alumna Hannah Nielsen. She also needs 102 more points to break Maryland alumna Jen Adams’ NCAA career points record of 445.
The Seawolves were dominant against the Trojans on both offense and defense. The team outshot the Trojans 31-25 and led them in shots on goal 26-20. Stony Brook also had 19 clears compared to USC’s 12, and the team grabbed 19 ground balls while USC was only able to collect 13.
Stony Brook is now 3-1 all-time against USC. The Seawolves hold a 9-3 record in the last 12 contests where the team has faced a ranked opponent. The team went 5-2 against ranked opponents last season, with the only losses coming at the hands of then-No. 3 Florida and No. 1 Maryland in the NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Quarterfinals.
Stony Brook will head up the West Coast and take on Stanford Monday night at Cagan Stadium at 7 p.m.
