BOX SCORE
Newark, Del. - Senior
Stephanie McNesby (Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop Ryan) scored a game-high five goals as the Holy Family University women's lacrosse team defeated Wilmington University by the score of 14-8 in a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) road contest Wednesday afternoon.
Holy Family improves to 3-3 overall and begins conference play with a 1-0 mark, while Wilmington falls to 0-7 overall and 0-1 in conference play. The win marked the Tigers' 11
th straight victory against conference opponents dating back to last season.
McNesby tallied five goals to lead the Tigers' offense. She also recorded an assist to finish with six points. In addition, McNesby controlled six draws as Holy Family edged Wilmington, 13-9, in that category. Senior
Maria Mattioli (Huntingdon Valley, Pa./Nazareth) recorded a hat trick as she tied her career-high with three goals.
Fellow classmate
Jessica Maloney (Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop Ryan) came through defensively for the Tigers as she led the team with five ground balls and three caused turnovers. Sophomore
Caitlin Carrezola (Langhorne, Pa./Neshaminy) also caused three turnovers on the defensive end.
For Wilmington, three players scored two goals a piece to lead the offense, including sophomore Megan Keffer who finished with a team-high three points. Keffer tallied two goals to go along with an assist. Senior Jaclyn Hall and junior Jessica Stratton also scored two goals for the Wildcats.
Wilmington led nearly the entire first half even though the Tigers tied the score on two occasions late in the half. Holy Family gained the lead for the first time after McNesby scored an unassisted goal at the 6:32 mark to break a 5-5 tie.
However, Wilmington answered back minutes later to tie the game at 6-6 after Keffer connected with her second goal of the half with 4:14 to play in the half.
In the final two minutes, the Tigers rallied for two straight goals to take a two-goal advantage going into halftime. Junior
Marissa Lawson (York, Pa./Central York) scored what would be the game-winning goal as she gave the Tigers a 7-6 lead with 1:52 on the clock. McNesby tacked on another goal with eight seconds left in the half to give the Tigers an 8-6 advantage.
In the second half, McNesby opened the scoring as she scored her first of two goals in the second half 1:04 into the half to give the Tigers their biggest lead of the game thus far at 9-6.
Minutes later Wilmington cut the lead to 9-7 after a goal by Stratton before McNesby scored her fifth goal of the game (22:59) to make the score 10-7.
Neither team would score over the next nine-plus minutes as Holy Family broke the cold spell with back-to-back goals by Mattioli (13:03) and freshman
Nicole Braungart (Medford, N.J./Bishop Eustace) (9:49). The two scores gave the Tigers their biggest lead of the game by the score of 12-7.
The Holy Family defense limited Wilmington to only one goal in the final 24:59 of the game as the Tigers outscored the Wildcats, 5-1, in that span.
The Tigers' offense outshot Wilmington, 34-13, as freshman goalkeeper
Grace Deckert (Jarrettsville, Md./Fallston) made two saves in net to record the victory. Her counterpart, senior Kaitlyn Hall, made 14 saves in goal for the Wildcats.
Holy Family is back in action on Saturday, March 23 as the Tigers host Nyack College in a CACC contest. Game time is slated for 12 p.m.
- HFU -
