STONY BROOK, N.Y. – The No. 5 Stony Brook women's lacrosse team (5-1, 1-0 CAA) rolled past the Delaware Blue Hens (4-5, 0-1 CAA) on Saturday afternoon at LaValle Stadium. The Seawolves defeated the Fightin' Blue Hens 19-6 to secure the first-ever CAA victory in program history.
Junior midfielder
Ellie Masera had herself a career day, tallying a career-high seven goals and an assist for a career-high tying eight points. Senior attacker
Kailyn Hart followed behind Masera recording a season-high four goals. Senior midfielders
Kira Accettella and
Charlotte Verhulst both added a pair of goals in the contest for Stony Brook.
Delaware got on the board first after McKenzie Didio found the back of the cage off an assist from Riley Gillin with 9:15 left to play in the first quarter. However, the Seawolves would not stay silent for long as Accettella answered back for the squad of a pass from junior midfielder
Jaden Hampel.
Masera added a goal of her own with 2:53 left to play in the first to give Stony Brook a 2-1 lead heading into the quarter break. Trailing 3-1, the Blue Hens cut Stony Brook's lead to just one courtesy of a free position goal by Lizzie Yurchak.
The one goal deficit is the closest Delaware would come to the Seawolves as the squad exploded offensively in the remaining three quarters. Stony Brook outscored the Blue Hens 17-5 in the last three quarters of the game to run away with the 19-6 win.
STATS AND NOTES
- Masera led the Seawolves' offense for the fourth consecutive contest, tallying a career-high seven goals and a career-high tying eight points.
- Hart registered a season-high four goals and has now scored two or more goals in five of the last six games.
- Verhulst made her mark all over the scoresheet as the senior scored a career-high two goals, dished out an assist, tallied a career-high three points and registered a season-high eight draw controls.
- Accettella recorded her first pair of goals and her first points of the season.
- Graduate attacker Jolie Creo found the back of the net and dished out a season-high two helpers to total a season-high three points.
- Sophomore midfielder Alexandra Fusco and Hampel each added a goal In the contest. Hampel also recorded a season-high two assists.
- Senior midfielder Lexie Correia beat the final buzzer to record her first goal of the season.
- Sophomore defender Avery Hines registered her first career start and tallied her first career caused turnover.
- The Stony Brook defense held Delaware to just six goals, tied for the least amount of goals the Blue Hens have scored all season (6 vs Denver on March 13).
- The Seawolves won the battle in the face-off circle, 20-7. The 20 draw controls are the most by the squad since Stony Brook won 21 against Boston University on Feb. 21, 2021.
QUOTES FROM THE SEAWOLVES
"Great way to start our conference schedule, I think our team did a great job preparing. Delaware is really well coached; they are a great group there. We had a lot coming into the game to be concerned about and I thought our players answered the bell and played really smart and disciplined lacrosse. We were super-efficient, early on we struggled a little bit with our shots so it was a little tighter at the end then we would have liked, but we will find some positives in that as we move forward towards Syracuse," said head coach
Joe Spallina.
"We went in at halftime and made adjustments. It wasn't just adjustments for me it was adjustments on the left side and behind. It's a buildup of everything and it kind of worked out where I was at the end of the rainbow, but it could have been Hart, it could have been anyone, but it just ended up being me. We didn't really change anything; it's just how our offense was working today," said junior midfielder
Ellie Masera.
"Obviously Northwestern is a great team and throughout this whole week of practice we went out and knew we had to be better and work harder. I think just working together as an offense as a whole rather than individually was better for all of us and better for myself. We made adjustments throughout practice and that's what really helped us build this week," said senior attacker
Kailyn Hart.
NEXT UP
Stony Brook hits the road to take on No. 2 Syracuse at the JMA Wireless Dome on Wednesday, March 22. Face-off is set for 8 p.m. and the game will be broadcast live on ESPNU.
