The Fairfield University women’s lacrosse team collected two blowout wins in the past week, storming past Iona University and Marist College in the process.
The Stags played their first conference game of the season on Wednesday, taking a short trek to New Rochelle, N.Y. to face off against Iona. Hybrid attackman and midfielder Olivia Doody ‘23 got the party started with an unassisted goal five minutes in to get the Stags on the board first. Doody then lent some help to graduate student midfielder Ellie Grefenstette, who buried one through at the six-minute mark to make it 2-0 in favor of the Stags. After Iona cut the lead in half, only a couple of minutes later, the Stags regained their two-goal advantage with a goal from attackman Amanda Kozak ‘24 with 32 seconds left in the quarter.
The Stags came into the second quarter looking for more juice, and they sure found it with midfielder Rylee Harrell ‘24 netting one with attackman Libby Rowe ‘23 picking up her first two goals of the game as the Stags found themselves up 6-1 at the 9:37 minute-mark in the second quarter. Iona stopped the bleeding briefly with a goal of their own at the 8:29 mark before Kozak fired back just over a minute later to put the Stags up by five once more. Hybrid attackman and midfielder Elizabeth Talluto ‘23 expanded on the Stags lead to six with her first of the game forty-six seconds after Kozak’s goal at the 6:11 mark. The Stags did not score again in the half as Iona managed to sneak in two to cut the Stags lead down to four heading into the half.
Fairfield came out of the half in dominating fashion, as Talluto started the five-goal rally within a span of seven minutes, beginning the rally at the 11:55 minute-mark to net her second tally of the contest. Following through was Doody, scoring her second of the game just under three minutes later off a pass from Kozak to strengthen the Fairfield lead to seven. Rowe then secured the hat trick a minute later, at the 7:37 mark with no help for her third hat trick of the season. Talluto then joined the hat trick party a short while later with five minutes to go in the quarter, needing no help to continue her torrid scoring pace that she has displayed throughout the season thus far. Grefenstette also contributed to the tail end of the rally, finding a way to get her second of the outing with some help from Harrell to put the Stags comfortably in the driver’s seat, 13-4.
Iona did not let this five-goal rally completely nail themselves in the coffin, as they instigated their own four-goal rally that saw Iona score two man-up goals at the tail end of the third quarter at the hands of a costly Fairfield penalty. They also came out of the gates hot in the fourth, chipping in two of their own to make the Fairfield lead five. After Grefenstette and Rowe each swooped in one more of their own, the dagger was officially implemented. Fairfield went on to win, 15-9.
The Stags returned to campus for their first home conference matchup against Marist College on Saturday, April 1. The Stags fooled the Red Foxes all game long, as they ran away with a resounding 20-4 victory. Talluto managed to build off her stellar performance on Wednesday as she managed to secure another hat trick not even halfway through the first quarter, obtaining the feat at the 8:14 minute mark to give the Stags a 4-2 lead after scoring her first two goals thirty-eight seconds into the game and at the 11:32 minute-mark, respectively. This quick offensive spark would not have been possible without the services of Grefenstette, who provided assists on each of the three goals while scoring her own on a man-up opportunity at the 12:26 mark, with Talluto, ironically, providing the assist.
More Stags stepped up to help Talluto and Grefenstette as Grefenstette helped put Doody’s name on the scoresheet just under two minutes later to increase the Stag’s lead to five. The Stags further strengthened their advantage to seven with goals from Harrell and Doody. After a Marist temporarily loosened the deficit with a goal of their own, Rowe put in her first of the afternoon to regain the Stags their five-goal possession as they concluded the first with an 8-3 lead.
The second quarter was arguably the Stags’ most dominant of the season thus far, as they not only scored a touchdown with seven goals of their own, but goaltender Casey Collins ‘23 managed to not allow any shots in her house throughout the quarter. Leading the offensive charge for Fairfield to kick off the second quarter was Grefenstette, who scored her second goal of the outing at the 13:31 minute mark. Kozak followed on a man-up opportunity to collect her first of the afternoon off of a Talutto pass, with Grefenstette soon finding the back of the net as well to become the second Stag of the afternoon to obtain a hat trick. Talluto found the back of the net a fourth time at the 7:01 minute mark to increase the Fairfield lead to nine, with Grefenstette helping out for the fifth time on the outing, which preceded a Doody goal just under two minutes later at the 5:25 mark to give the Stags their first double-digit lead of the afternoon.
Fairfield was not done quite yet, as attackman Grace Slater ‘25 scored her ninth of the season and the first on the day to add the lead to eleven with a dish from Doody. The Stags went into the half with a 15-3 lead, and they did not stop adding to their lead with shots from Rowe and Doody at the 14:03 and 11:39 minute marks in the third to collect their second and fifth goals of the game, respectively.
After Marist snapped their near two-quarterly goal drought with a goal of their own at the 5:49 minute mark, Slater chipped in her second of the game shortly thereafter just under three minutes later with 3:09 to go. The Stags scored two more goals, as attackman Brooke Mariotti ‘25 snuck one through to get her first goal of the season as the Stags hit 20. That was all the Stags wrote, as they took the win, 20-4. With the win, the Stags move to 2-0 in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play.
After her strong performances through her first two games, Doody was named the MAAC player of the week. During the two games, Doody managed to put in seven goals and five assists to go along with 12 points, while picking up a pair of ground balls and committing two turnovers. Doody and her teammates will continue to meander through their conference season with home tilts against Quinnipiac University on Wednesday, April 5 at 3 p.m. and Siena College on Saturday, April 8 at 1 p.m. Both games will be held at Rafferty Stadium. For more information on the Fairfield women’s lacrosse team and Fairfield athletics as a whole, please visit www.fairfieldstags.com.
Leave a Reply