STONY BROOK, N.Y. — Starting the day with the first six goals, the Stony Brook women's lacrosse team quickly made its presence felt on Sunday afternoon against Ivy League foe Dartmouth.
Siobhan Rafferty had a first-quarter hat trick as part of her five-goal day, and the No. 4 Seawolves were off and running en route to their 20-3 victory in front of 1,040 fans at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium.
Rafferty and
Kailyn Hart went back to back inside of 20 seconds to get the offense up and running, and then three goals in a 90 second span, two from Rafferty, made it 6-0 in the first quarter. After Dartmouth got one back a woman up, the Seawolves rattled off five in a row, three of which coming from Hart, to go up 11-1 at the 10:48 mark of the second quarter. Hart also finished the day with a five-spot in the goal column.
Stony Brook pitched a second-half shutout, scoring all eight in the final 30 minutes of action.
Molly LaForge and
Alexandra Fusco each recorded their first collegiate tallies, with Fusco scoring both in the final frame for the Seawolves.
With the win, the Seawolves find a groove ahead of a pair of Top 10 matchups ahead in the next two weeks.
STATS AND NOTES
- Hart's five-goal game is a new career-best for her, topping a pair of four-goal outputs over her first two years.
- She added an assist to match her career-high of six points, done on Feb. 15, 2020 against Ohio State.
- Rafferty's five-goal day matched her career high, last done against Boston University on Feb. 21, 2021.
- Haley Dillon caused three turnovers, the most since May 4, 2019 against UAlbany.
- The nine shots allowed by the Seawolves defense is the fewest since allowing seven to Hartford on April 5, 2018.
- Jaden Hampel's two caused turnovers and four ground balls both set a new collegiate best.
- The Seawolves defense held Dartmouth to the second-fewest goals by any team in the country this season.
- Ellie Masera led the way with three assists, the first multi-assist game of her collegiate career.
- Clare Levy added the first two assists of her Seawolves tenure.
QUOTES FROM THE SEAWOLVES
"We came to practice this week ready to go. We were competing even harder. We know how good we are. As a team, we're ready for this week. After coming off a big win in front of our fans in our stadium, we're ready to take on this season. We had several freshman and sophomore players scoring and assisting and they continue to help us get better each and every day and I'm really happy to be able to see them go out there and show everybody else what they show us on a daily basis" - junior attacker
Kailyn Hart.
"It was great to play like this in front of our home fans. That's one of the biggest things about us, we don't do a lot of losing around here. Besides the natural excitement of a home opener, it was another opportunity for us to get on the field and get a W. We had a great week of practice. It was probably one of the best weeks of practice we've had as long as I've been here so I hoped that would've translated onto the field and it did. I thought we were really efficient and we shared the ball a lot. There were a lot of different goalscorers and we played really smart lacrosse. Defensively, we were suffocating and were able to get saves in key spots that allowed us to get on a little bit of a run. Overall, it was a good day for us." - head coach
Joe Spallina.
UP NEXT
The Seawolves head south for a matchup with No. 7 Florida in Gainesville. First draw is scheduled for 10 a.m.
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