On Wednesday, Feb. 24, the women’s lacrosse team lost to Columbia in a shootout by a score of 14-11. The Stags entered the game at 1-1, having blown past Long Island University – Brooklyn in their season opener before being stopped by Boston University on Feb. 20. Columbia entered the game at 0-1, having lost to Drexel in overtime in their season opener.
The goals came early and often in this game. Columbia struck first, scoring just 1:30 into the game. The Stags soon responded as Colleen Reynolds ‘16 scored her first of two goals on the game at the 3:31 mark to tie the game up.
After a second Columbia goal, Riley Hellstein ‘17 got on the board when she scored off of a free position shot. Columbia then scored another two goals to give themselves a 4-2 lead with 17:20 left in the first half.
The Stags then went on a 4-0 run, their longest of the game. Reynolds, Hellstein, Kelly Camardo ‘17 and Alex Fehmel ’17 all scored to give Fairfield a 6-4 lead, but then Columbia went on a 3-1 run to make the score 7-7 at the half.
The heavy rain on game day made for less than ideal conditions on the field. The simple act of completing passes or recovering ground balls became a lot harder for both teams. The sloppy conditions led to some equally sloppy play as the two teams combined for 29 turnovers and 58 fouls.
Head coach Laura Field, however, was not going to use the weather as an excuse for the outcome. “We play in the winter all the time. So I don’t know if [the weather] was that much of a factor. We had a lot of turnovers today, we’ve had a lot of turnovers the past two games. If we play sloppy, that’s the result we’re going to get,” said Field.
As with the first half, Columbia struck first, scoring 1:19 into the half. Hellstein then completed her hat trick, tying the game off an assist from Maeve Quinn ‘16. Quinn then scored off of a free position shot to give Fairfield a 9-8 lead with 27:24 left.
Fairfield did not score again for another 20 minutes, after a 3-0 run by Columbia. With the score 11-10 in favor of Columbia with 7:45 left, Columbia went on another 3-0 run to effectively ice the game.
Fairfield scored once more in the final two minutes, this time from Julieanne Mascera ‘16 to make the final score 14-11. After the game, Field was very positive with her message to the team: “We have Hofstra on Saturday. They’re a very good team that we need to account for. We need to learn from our mistakes and get ready.” After defeating Hofstra this past Saturday, the Stags will look to carry the momentum as they travel to take on in-state rival Sacred Heart on Wednesday, March 2.
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