Newsday: Olen, Mayott lead Post past Adelphi in NCAA quarterfinal
By Bob Herzog
Newsday
It was the women's lacrosse version of Whack-a-Mole.
Adelphi put the mallet down on LIU Post's Jackie Sileo, limiting the nation's leading scorer to two shots and one goal, and up popped Ashley Olen and Nan Mayott.
Olen (East Islip) scored five goals with two assists while Mayott (Islip) scored two goals with five assists to lead LIU Post to a 14-11 victory over Adelphi Saturday in a Division II NCAA Tournament quarterfinal game at Post's Hickox Field in Brookville.
Post (15-3) advances to the Final Four in Louisville, where they will face LeMoyne (16-2) at 2 p.m. Thursday.
Adelphi (16-3), ranked No. 1 in the nation entering the game and winners of the last three national championships, chose to have one player shadow or faceguard Sileo, the sophomore from Wantagh who leads the country with 125 points and 86 assists.
"We're used to teams doing that to Jackie, but we have a very diverse team," said Olen, the team's top goal scorer with 69. "You can't shut us all down."
That was clearly the case, as Lauren Spagnoletta (West Islip) scored three goals and an assist in the first half, which ended tied at 6. But Post scored the first four goals of the second half, completing a 6-0 run to grab a 10-6 lead with 24:24 left. Mayott scored on a nifty reverse-spin move; Samantha Losco (Hauppauge) finished on a slot feed from Olen; Katie Rotan (West Islip) converted another nice pass from Olen, and Spagnoletta scored her fourth of the game with a spin-dodge after a pass from Mayott.
"I was able to move around and create opportunities for everyone else," said Mayott, whose seven points were a season-high. "I took over Jackie's role as a feeder because they shut her off."
Adelphi, which got five goals from Meg Brown (Lindenhurst) and two goals and an assist from Devan Crimi (West Islip), cut the deficit to two goals on three different occasions. The last time came with 4:54 left when Brown scored an unassisted, man-down goal to make it 13-11.
At that point, Post was looking to kill the clock more than it was looking to hit the back of the net. "It had to be a high-percentage shot," coach Meghan McNamara said. "We were possessing the ball, but I had confidence in these kids to take a good shot."
With 4:26 left, Post was presented with a two-minute extra-man scenario, but that didn't mean it was a license to shoot. "We knew it had to be a 100-percent-it's definitely-going-in shot," said Olen, who created exactly that opportunity when she cut to the front of the crease and converted a feed from Mayott, who was positioned to the right of the cage.
"I saw her coming. She's really tall," Mayott said of the 5-11 Olen. "We knew we needed to score one more goal."
Olen reached high for the pass and bounced it past Jordann Dempsey (10 saves) for the clincher. "I had to fake high and shoot low," Olen said.
Just call it Whack-a-Goal.