#1 Women’s Lax Advances to 3rd-Consecutive Skyline Final With Win Over #4 Old Westbury
| Final | 1 | 2 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
#4 Old Westbury (6-12 (4-3)) | 2 | 7 | 9 |
|
#1 St. Joseph's (L.I.) (12-4 (7-0)) | 13 | 6 | 19 |
Written by Andrew Capitelli (SJC-LI Sports Information)
Patchogue, NY| Freshman Nicole Stoppelli tallied five times and senior Jessica Cordano dished out five assists as the top-seeded St. Joseph's College (L.I.) women's lacrosse team defeated fourth-seeded SUNY Old Westbury 19-9 in the Skyline Conference semifinal round to advance to the tournament final for the third-consecutive year.
With the victory, the Golden Eagles (12-4) extend their conference winning streak (regular season and playoff) to 17 games and will host Farmingdale State on Saturday in a rematch of last year's final.
Old Westbury wraps its 2016 campaign with a 6-12 mark.
Stoppelli opened the scoring with the first shot of the game 14 seconds in, and Cordano would would double the advantage with a tally of her own at 28:24. Old Westbury's Halle Johnson struck at 26:29, but a 6-0 run (goals from Tricia Barrett, Stoppelli (2), Jenna Kelleher, Heather Ferchland and Melanie Cervone) from 22:11 to 16:58 for the Golden Eagles blew the game wide open and saw the hosts pull ahead 8-1.
Natasha Treuman ended the SJC run at 14:50, but the Golden Eagles finished off the first half with a 5-0 run (Cordano, Stoppelli, Ferchland,Meaghan Haber and Barrett) to take a 13-2 lead into the break.
A 4-0 run across the opening 4:15 of the second half allowed the Panthers to cut the Golden Eagles' deficit to seven (13-6), but it was followed by a 3-0 stretch from SJC that put the hosts back ahead 10 (16-6).
Consecutive 3-0 runs for Old Westbury and then St. Joseph's wrapped the scoring as the Golden Eagles claimed the 19-9 win.
Ferchland (4), Kelleher (3) and Barrett (3) all contributed to an SJC offense that generated 37 shots. Ferchland would also collect seven draw controls and five ground balls.
Defenders Brianna Mascia and Nicole Danisi caused three turnovers apiece, while keeper Lindsay Ramos was credited with seven saves on 16 shots.
The Skyline Conference final will be played at Danzi Stadium this Saturday at 12:00 PM. Live stats will be available here.
