By Christopher Boulay / Asst. Sports Editor
CCSU women’s lacrosse dropped their home opener at Arute Field against Siena, by a score of 15-9 on Sunday afternoon.
The Blue Devils (0-4) went down 2-0 early due to goals by Siena’s Dierdre McQuillan and Caitlin Mikel. After the early stumble, CCSU surged to score four goals in less than four minutes, to take a 4-2 lead with Courtney Mooney, Alexa Smead, Lyndsey Mastandrea and Ashley Perkoski cashing in.
Coach Rachel Tringali was pleased with the Blue Devils’ early efforts on all fronts. “We played the best first half this season,” she said.
“We did a great job in transition.”
Lindsey Rosecrands led the scoring for the Saints (2-1), scoring four goals and adding two assists. Mikel and McQuillan each scored hat tricks, Courtney Highsmith and Allie Kain each scored two, and Ryan Tierney scored a second half goal.
For the Blue Devils, Stephanie John, Mastandrea and Perkoski each scored two, while Smead, Mooney and Michele Conway all scored one.
The game fluctuated throughout the first half, with four ties and two lead changes.
Siena’s (2-1) Kristin Concordia made 10 saves for the Saints, while Blue Devils goalkeeper Alice Lee had 20 saves in a losing effort.
“We have a great goalie in Alice Lee, but sometimes we rely on [defense] too much,” Tringali said.
CCSU’s dependence on defense would come back to bite them, as they gave up four goals because of unsuccessful clears during the match, finishing 12-16 in clears, while Siena was a perfect 6-6.
The Saints were able to pull away in the second half, with Courtney Highsmith scoring what would be the first of four-straight goals for the Saints, and put the game out of reach. Siena outscored CCSU 6-2 in the half.
“We came out flat in the second half and we couldn’t recover. We couldn’t find our groove. We didn’t capitalize when we had to,” Tringali said.
Tringali also formulated what the Blue Devils will have to do to carry the strong first half play into a 60-minute effort.
“We need to maintain more possession on attack and [have] more ball movement on attack,” she said.
CCSU received six yellow cards in the game, while Siena received two. The Saints outshot the Blue Devils 41-20, and CCSU also lost the turnover battle, committing 25 to Siena’s 19.
“Turnovers hurt us. Sometimes we try to force things instead of allowing things to flow,” she said.
CCSU played Quinnipiac Tuesday in their Conference home opener. They will be in action again at Arute Field on March 18 against Detroit Mercy at 7 p.m.
