April 11, 2007

Final Stats

Durham, N.H. - The Stony Brook University women's lacrosse team held off a furious rally from New Hampshire in America East action to top the Wildcats, 11-8, on Wednesday afternoon. The Seawolves, winners of seven straight, move to 10-1, 3-0 in America East play and are now in sole possession of first place in the league. UNH falls to 6-6, 3-1 in league play.

In a tale of two halves, the Seawolves held an 8-1 advantage heading into the locker room but were outscored 7-3 in the second stanza. Plagued by 29 turnovers in the contest, SB received yet another terrific performance in the cage from Jen Sandtorv to earn its seventh straight victory. The 10 wins' sets a new program record for most wins in a season.

"We are currently in a very important stretch of league games and I knew we needed to come out on fire today," said head coach Allison Comito. "Our girls showed a lot of heart today and stayed strong during their rally in the second half."

Kaitlin Leggio opened up the scoring for the Seawolves just 2:27 into the game after she finished a feed from Amy Taylor to put the visitors up 1-0. An unassisted tally from Jenna Celano gave SB a 2-0 advantage before a Moira Talbot goal for the Wildcats cut the Seawolves lead to 2-1 with 23:12 remaining. The Seawolves defense clamped down from that point on, not allowing the Wildcats another goal for the rest of the half, and limiting them to just seven more shots in the stanza. Stony Brook closed out the first half with six unanswered goals to grab a 8-1 lead heading into the locker room. A spread out offense saw scoring from Katie Savino, Sam Strebel, Taylor, and a pair from Diana Caroleo find the back of the cage in the run.

The Wildcats came out of the locker room with two quick goals in the first 2:53 seconds to claw themselves back into the game. Goals from Michaela Hardy and Beth Sabiston forced head coach Allison Comito to call a timeout to regroup her squad. Celano responded by finding the back of the cage for the third time in the contest to regain a 9-3 Seawolf lead with 23:55 to play. A Sarah Von Bargen free-position goal with 21:57 gave the Wildcats their third goal of the half and cut SB's lead to 9-4. Another Von Bargen tally just over two minutes later brought the Wildcats within four before Taylor finished a Leggio pass with 18:35 left in the contest. Once again, UNH would chip away at the lead, as tallies from Shauna Kaplan and Von Bargen brought the score to 10-7 with just under 10 minutes remaining in the game. The Wildcats got within two as another Hardy goal with 7:42 on the clock forced Comito to call another timeout. Amy Hallion would break the 16:37 Seawolf scoring drought as she found the back of the cage and beat keeper Ashley Milley with 3:00 remaining to seal the victory.

Taylor led the way for SB as she recorded a pair of goals and three assists for her fifth game in a row with at least five points. Celano added a hat trick while Leggio tacked on an assist and a goal. Sandtorv finished with 12 saves in the cage. The Seawolves dominated the draw control as they picked up 16 of the 21 on the afternoon.

Von Bargen led the way for UNH with three goals while Hardy added two tallies and an assist. Milley allowed just three goals in the second half and made six saves for the Wildcats in 30 minutes of action.

The Seawolves return to action when they travel south to take on America East foe UMBC on Saturday afternoon. First draw is slated for 1:00 p.m.