April 2, 2011

 

Final Stats

 

 

 

The Stony Brook women's lacrosse team played strong against nationally ranked Albany (No. 11 in the IWLCA coaches poll, No. 9 in the deBeers media poll) and was within one goal with less than 20 minutes remaining, but the Great Danes pulled away to an 11-5 win over the Seawolves Saturday at LaValle Stadium.

The score does not indicate the tightness of the contest, as neither team was ahead by more than two goals until the match's final 10 minutes. Kaila Gottlick (Madison, Conn.), Stony Brook's America East Player of the Game, led the Seawolves with three goals. Nikki Branchini, Albany's America East Player of the Game, had four goals and an assist, all in the second half.

The Seawolves earned the first draw control of the game and waited for the perfect opportunity to strike as Gottlick tallied a goal unassisted at 27:14 to put the Seawolves on top. Albany quickly answered with Ariana Parker's goal a minute later to tie the game.

Abby Ford (Baltimore, Md.) snuck past a defender and took a feed from Alyssa Cardillo (Farmingdale, N.Y.) and smashed the ball past Albany keeper Anna Berman to give the Seawolves a 2-1 lead at the 23:08 mark, but three minutes later, Albany's Taylor Frink took a pass from Jodi Battaglia and slung it into the net for the tying goal. Parker notched her second goal of the game at 14:25 to make it 3-2 Great Danes.

Both teams played strong defense the rest of the first half, and the score at halftime was 3-2.

In the second half, the teams traded goals early on as Branchini had a pair of unassisted goals surrounding Stony Brook goals from Melissa Cook (Bay Shore, N.Y.) and Gottlick. Gottlick's goal was a free position attempt at 19:07 and got the Seawolves within one, 5-4.

After that goal, Stony Brook won the draw control, but committed a turnover soon after, one of 11 turnovers in the game. That led to Kathleen Lennon's goal at 16:46 and a 6-4 Great Danes lead. Branchini followed up with another tally to make it 7-4 before Gottlick answered with a short armed goal approximately six feet out to get it to 7-5.

Albany pulled away with four goals in the final 10:23 and held the Seawolves to one shot thereafter, a free position save by Berman on Gottlick.

Despite the 11 goals, Seawolves keeper Mickey Cahill (Bay Shore, N.Y.) played an outstanding contest, making 10 saves and seeing 29 shots total. She was a big part of holding Albany to 2-for-8 on free position shots.

Stony Brook also won the draw control battle, 11-7, but committed five more turnovers than the Great Danes.

Stony Brook will seek its first conference win of the year this Wednesday when it travels to UMBC for a 4 p.m. tilt. The Seawolves' next home match is next Saturday vs. Binghamton at 1 p.m.