The women’s lacrosse team extended its best start in program history after overcoming a late collapse to win in overtime.
The Stags earned their first-ever win over Lehigh, 13-12, to improve to 5-1 on the season. Fairfield began last season with a 2-4 record.
“The whole team’s attitude has changed,” said Head Coach Beth Loffredo. “They know they are good now.
“They have been up and down in the past. We also added coach [Mike] Waldvogel, who brings a lot of experience.”
Waldvogel, a member of the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame, was the head coach at Yale for over 20 years and was awarded the Morris Touchstone Award as the nation’s top Division I coach in 1990. He also played on the U.S. National Team in 1974 and 1978 as a defenseman.
Against Lehigh, it did not look good for Fairfield early as the Mountain Hawks jumped out to a 4-0 lead. But two goals by Kim Fuchs ’09 followed by three Kristen Coleman ’11 goals and a Cristin Lucena ’09 goal gave the Stags a 6-4 lead. Fairfield extended its lead to 12-6 with 17:08 left in the second half.
Lehigh battled back, scoring six goals in the final 12 minutes of play to send the game into overtime.
The Mountain Hawks won the opening draw but Coleman forced a turnover and feed Lucena to take the lead. Lehigh answered with a goal of its own with 3:11 to play.
Mary Vallely ’08 forced another turnover for the Stags with 2:47 remaining. Coleman again found the back of the net for the game-winner with 1:50 left. Goalie Lauren Chatnik ’09 stopped a point-blank shot with 1:22 left to preserve the victory.
“It was stressful,” said Loffredo. “Momentum can be hard to stop, but they kept their composure and knew what they had to do. It was a little too exciting for me.”
Coleman finished the game with five goals and two assists. She leads the Stags in points with 27 and in goals with 21. She also has six assists.
“She’s a pretty big factor,” said Loffredo. “She has such great field presence and her teammates respect her because she knows what she is doing.”
Chatnik has played every minute in goal for Fairfield and is allowing 9.84 goals per game with a .423 save percentage. Fairfield will begin a four-game road trip this week and it will also begin to play its conference schedule.
“I don’t know [how the conference schedule will go],” said Loffredo. “The MAAC can be surprising sometimes.”
Leave a Reply