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Women's Lacrosse Takes Down Fairfield 18-8 in NCAA Tournament
May 09, 2015 | Women's Lacrosse
Box Score
STONY BROOK, N.Y. (5/8/15) - The No. 11 Princeton women's lacrosse team dominated the second half en route to an 18-8 win over Fairfield in the first round of the NCAA tournament, on Friday night at Stony Brook University.
The Tigers outscored the Stags, 8-1 in the final 30 minutes after holding a three-goal lead at halftime.
Princeton, now 15-3 on the season, advances to the second round to face six-seeded and No. 6- ranked Stony Brook on Sunday, May 10 at noon.
"The second half we settled down a little bit and got back to playing our game," Princeton head coach Chris Sailer said. "We were able to control the draw and spent very little time on our defensive end. We had some great playmakers offensively who made some great, great plays. The energy really turned around for us in the second half. We knew if we kept at it and kept grinding away that we'd be able to pull away eventually, but I thought Fairfield did a great job in that first half, giving us all we could handle."
The Tigers came out of the gates taking a four-goal lead. Leading the offense was sophomore midfielder Lauren Steidl, who spent more time on the field tonight after an injury to freshman Abby Finkelston in the opening minute. Typically a "fo-go" Steidl, posted a career-high in just the first 15 minutes of the game, and ended the half with a hat trick and one assist.
"We have so many people that can come off the bench and make a difference," Steidl said. "I love going in for the draws, but I want to make sure I'm doing whatever I can to help out the team in whatever way that I can, so I'm happy that I was able to make a difference tonight."
She put Princeton on the board with an eight-meter conversion 50 seconds into the game.
Fairfield's Julieanne Mascera scored an odd goal to tie it up, as sophomore goalie Ellie DeGarmo stopped the Stags first shot of the game and tried to swipe it away but it rolled over the line.
Sophomore Anna Doherty took a run from the right side to regain the lead for the Tigers and Princeton wouldn't relinquish it.
Native Long Islander Stephanie Paloscio found the back of the net with help from junior Anya Gersoff before Steidl added her second free-position goal of the game to make it 4-1 at 19:35.
Colleen Reynolds scored on a Mascera pass before Gersoff made a leaping move to go over the head of goalie Chelsey Sidaras. Steidl completed the hat trick with Slifer assisting to make it 6-2.
A two-goal run by Fairfield cut its deficit to just two at 12:41.
The teams traded goals to close out the first half, with Doherty scoring her second goal, senior Erin McMunn getting on the board and senior Erin Slifer putting away her 98th career goal as the Tigers took a 10-7 lead into halftime.
The second half was all Tigers.
The Tigers scored eight straight goals with sophomore Olivia Hompe scoring half of those eight goals. The 10-goal running clock rule went into effect at 11:47, as McMunn buried a Paloscio pass to make it 17-7. Freshman Camille Sullivan capped off the run at 9:24 on a feed from Hompe.
Alex Fehmel scored the team's only goal of the half at 7:10, which would be the final goal of the game.
Princeton outshot Fairfield 29-18 and while the Stags won 15 draws to Princeton's 13.
Hompe finished the game with four goals and one assist, while Slifer had one goal and four assists. Gersoff combined two goals and two assists, while McMunn collected a hat trick. Doherty and Sullivan each scored twice while Paloscio had a goal and an assist. Steidl and Gersoff had three draws each, while Madeline Rodriquez had two caused turnovers and Paloscio had two ground balls. DeGarmo made six saves. Senior Annie Woehling played the final 3:38 and had one ground ball.
Mascera paced the Fairfield offense with three goals and two assists, and Fuchs scored twice with one helper. Sidaras finished her day with seven stops. Fairfield ends its season at 13-5.