Five games into the season, the women’s lacrosse team is off to its best start in school history.
The Stags have been competitive in every game this season, including a 9-8 loss to No. 13 Yale in the season opener.
Fairfield moved into 38th place in the LaxPower poll after a 13-9 win over Mount St. Mary’s on Saturday.
Freshman Kristen Coleman, who has twice been named the MAAC player of the week – once on offense and once on defense – continued her strong play with a five-point performance.
Coleman now has a team-leading 16 goals and 20 points on the season.Through four games, Coleman was ranked 22nd in the country and second in the MAAC in goals per game, with 3.25.
Head Coach Beth Loffredo ’06 holds the Fairfield rookie-record for goals, scoring 47 en route to MAAC Rookie of the Year honors in 2003.
While Coleman has made an immediate impact on the Stags, junior goalkeeper Lauren Chatnik has also been a key to their early success.
Chatnik ranked seventh in the country in goals against average after four games, with a 7.75 average.
Last season, Chatnik was a member of the All-MAAC First Team. She has moved into third all-time in the school’s wins list, with 16, only two shy from the record co-held by Kandiss Kulp ’00 and Monica Janowitz ’04.
Mary Vallely ’08, was the MAAC Defensive Player of the Year and is again leading the defense in front of Chatnik.
Vallely has 10 ground ball pick-ups and a team-high nine caused turnovers.
Coleman has not only been a threat on the offensive end of the field. She is fifth in the nation in turnovers caused per game, forcing an average of 2.75 a contest.
Against Mount St. Mary’s, the Stags started slowly, allowing two early goals. But Fairfield struck back quickly, taking a 3-2 lead on back-to-back goals by Erin Rigby ’10 in a 15-second span.
After Mount evened the score, Cristin Lucena ’09 put Fairfield back ahead, 4-3.
In the second half, Mount tied the game at five, but Fairfield scored four unanswered goals to pull away.
Mount cut the lead back down to three with 12:50 remaining in the game, but Coleman and Rebecca White ’09 scored twice more to seal the victory.
Fairfield swept the weekly awards, with Coleman winning Rookie of the Week, Rigby, Offensive Player and Carolina Madrak, Defensive Player.
The Stags play Lehigh at home on Wednesday afternoon at 4 p.m.
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