May 9, 2010

Box Score

Garden City, N.Y. - The Adelphi University women's lacrosse team played host to second seeded Stonehill College on Sunday, May 9 in the Northeast-10 Conference title game. The Panthers trailed 10-8, but scored six of the final nine goals to secure a 14-13, overtime win and claim the program's first conference title, courtesy of a Marissa Mills goal with 1:35 left in the second overtime period.

With the victory Adelphi improves to 16-1 overall, while Stonehill falls to 13-3. Both teams must wait until 10 pm tonight, May 9 to find out their fate, as the NCAA will announce the field for the women's lacrosse tournament live on CBS College Sports.

Adelphi and Stonehill were knotted at 11 with 4:49 left in the game, thanks to a Hanna Anderson goal. However, 2:20 later, Elizabeth Fey took a feed from Claire Petersen and beat Stonehill goalkeeper Rebecca Moore to give Adelphi a one goal edge, 12-11. The Skyhawks answered right back as 20 seconds later Anderson notched her fourth and final goal of the game, tying the game at 12.

Stonehill won the following draw control, but Holly Burke caused a Stonehill turnover, giving the Panthers control of the ball and the game. Adelphi ran down the clock and with 25 seconds left Mills slashed toward the cage, beating Moore, but the goal was no good as a whistle killed the play. Mills' free position attempt was saved and then Moore made two more point blank saves to keep Stonehill alive and send the game to overtime.

Moore continued to come up big for the Skyhawks, making two saves in the first overtime period on a free position and a Erica Devito shot from eight yards, she also got help from the post, as a Fey effort was knocked wide courtesy of the pipe. Adelphi's pressure finally paid off in the second overtime period as Demmianne Cook fired a shot into the Stonehill goal, with help from Kaitlyn Carter, who collected the ground ball and moved the ball to Cook.

Cook's tally came just 13 seconds into the second overtime period and would be followed by Mills' score, 1:12 later to give the Panthers a 14-12 cushion with 1:35 on the clock. Down two goals, Stonehill kept fighting as the Skyhawks won the next draw control and then put three shots on the Adelphi goal in the follwing 15 seconds, two of which were turned away by Fitzpatrick, before Heather Sullivan scooped the ball into the Panther goal.

With the score 14-13 and 1:01 on the clock, Carter won the draw and Fey collected the ground ball, essentially ending the game. For their play both Burke and Erica Devito were named to the All-Tournament team, while Claire Petersen was named MVP.

The first six minutes of action were a scoreless tie as both teams were looking for open chances, the first came as Petersen found Carter, giving Adelphi a 1-0 edge with 23:55 to play. Less then a minutes later, Sullivan evened the score and followed teammate Sam Lynott's goal with a second to five the Skyhawks a 3-1 advantage with 17:52 to play.

Devito and Petersen would team-up for two straight goals, pulling Adelphi even at three, but Stonehill would score three of the next four goals to take a two goal lead, 6-4, with 6:32 on the clock. It appeared that the Skyhawks would enjoy a two goal advantage at the half until Petersen drew the Stonehill defense and then dumped the ball to Fey, who beat Moore with just two seconds on the clock to send the game into the half, 6-5.

Just over a minute into the second half, the Skyhawks pushed the lead back to two goals, 7-5, thanks to a Sarah Galligan tally, but Burke and Petersen responded with tallies to tie the game at seven with 26:43 left in the action. Stonehill would again score three of the next four to take a 10-8 lead, closing the run on another Galligan goal.

The Panthers would react with three goals of their own as Carter, Mills and Fey all scored in a three-minute span to put Adelphi ahead 11-10, the Panthers first lead since Petersen opened the scoring in the first half.

Petersen led the way for Adelphi with nine points (2G, 7A), while Carter (2G, 1A), Mills (2G, 1A), Devito (3G) and Fey (3G) all had three points, Fitzpatrick made 17 stops in net for Adelphi as the Panthers out shot Stonehill, 46-37, collected more ground balls, 56-33 and held a 21-10 edge in draw controls.