DENVER – The No. 4/6 Stony Brook women's lacrosse team dropped its first game of the season to No. 13/16 Denver by a 7-11 decision on Sunday afternoon at the Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.

QUOTING HEAD COACH Joe Spallina
"We tip our cap to Denver. They were better for 60 minutes and deserved to win. We will grow from this. We're obviously disappointed in our performance and that starts with me. We didn't do a great job of dealing with adversity today and allowed bad to go to worse. We created adversity in our schedule by playing a few times this season with two games in three days and we get another crack at it next weekend with two great opponents."
 
HIGHLIGHTS

• Down 5-0 at the midway point of the first half, Rayna Sabella (Mount Sinai, N.Y.) was a spark for Stony Brook, scoring at the 14:23 mark to kick-start a 3-0 run for the Seawolves.
• Nicole Barretta (Exton, Pa.) and Ally Kennedy (North Babylon, N.Y.) followed that up with two goals within 50 seconds of one another to chip at Denver's lead and come within two, 5-3.
• The Pioneers added on two more goals before the half to head back to the locker room with a 7-3 advantage.
• Stony Brook once again managed to score three unanswered in the second half to cut its deficit to two as Taryn Ohlmiller (Islip, N.Y), Kennedy and Sabella all scored within a span of 1:41, but Denver outscored the Seawolves 3-1 in the final 16:10 of the contest to solidify the victory.
• Anna Tesoriero (Huntington, N.Y.) made 12 total saves on the day, six in each half.

NOTES

• Barretta's goal was her first as a Seawolf.
• Mackenzie Burns (West Sayville, N.Y.) tallied the team's final goal of the day at the 9:36 mark of the second half to record her first score of the season.
• Sabella, Kennedy and Ohlmiller have each scored in both games so far this year.
• The team controlled more draws than the opponent by a 12-8 margin, but had 24 turnovers to Denver's 16.
• The Seawolves are now 12-3 in their last 15 contests vs. ranked opponents. 
• Stony Brook is 3-6 all-time against Denver, winning the previous two contests against the Pioneers.

NEXT UP
The Seawolves hit the road for Towson later this week, meeting the Tigers underneath the Friday night lights at 7 p.m. on Friday, Mar. 1 at Johnny Unitas Stadium.