Box Score
Moon Township, Pa. – The Long Island University women’s lacrosse team dropped its Northeast Conference opener at Robert Morris, 15-8, on Friday afternoon at Joe Walton Stadium. The Blackbirds rallied late, but were unable to overcome a slow start. Junior
Jenna Schauder and sophomore
Claire Ranney led LIU with two goals apiece.
Robert Morris (3-3, 1-0 NEC) raced out to a 4-0 lead, with Courtney Sicinski scoring the first two goals just 20 seconds apart in the first 1:22 of the game. Freshman
Caitlin Farrell took a pass from
Sara LaNoir to put LIU on the board at the 19:53 mark, but Robert Morris came back with two goals to make it 6-1.
Long Island (1-6, 0-1 NEC) cut the deficit on a free position goal from Schauder. The Colonials followed with two more scores before junior
Annie Kalata scored an unassisted goal with 2:07 left in the half to make it 8-3 at the intermission.
The Colonials pushed the game out of reach by scoring on each of their first four shots in the second half. Sicinski opened and closed the run to make it 12-3 with 22:57 left to play. Ranney got LIU on the board with consecutive goals just over 10 minutes into the period. The second came off a feed from senior Christie Wienckowski to make it 13-5 at the 17:13 mark.
Following another goal from RMU, Schauder converted a free position shot and senior
Jillian Maricondo scored an unassisted goal to make it 13-7 with 12:59 to play. The Colonials managed to stifle the rally by limiting LIU to just four shots the rest of the way and making two saves. Alana Beck and Tara Southworth tacked on two goals, before Wienckowski scored on a free position shot with 2:38 to play for the final margin.
Wienckowski added a team-high six draw controls, while senior
Kristina Scheerer corralled a team-high three ground balls. LIU held a 13-11 advantage in draw controls, but was narrowly outshot, 25-24, and was at a 19-11 disadvantage in ground balls.
Karly O’Brien had four ground balls and three caused turnovers to lead the RMU defensive effort, while Erica Webb and Jennifer Schulze had nine and four saves, respectively.
The Blackbirds travel to Saint Francis (Pa.) on Sunday, March 21, for a NEC matchup.