No. 9/11 Women's Lacrosse Trumps STAC on Senior Day, 13-5
Box Score BROOKVILLE, N.Y. (Apr. 18, 2015) - Four different players collected hat tricks as the LIU Post women's lacrosse team used an eight-goal first half to outscore St. Thomas Aquinas, 13-5, in an East Coast Conference game Saturday at Bethpage Federal Credit Union Stadium.
LIU Post (12-2, 7-0 ECC) clinched a playoff berth with the victory, and also maintained the top overall place in the conference standings. Additionally, the green and gold locked up the No. 1 seed in the East Coast Conference playoff picture, as second-seeded Dowling can finish with a 7-1 record at best. The Pioneers own the tiebreaker over the Golden Lions by virtue of an 11-4 win on Apr. 8.
The scoring started early as red-shirt sophomore attacker
Emily Delaney (Long Valley, N.J.) took a pass from senior midfielder
Jenna Pierro (Holbrook, N.Y.) and collected her 27th goal of the season. This would be the start of an eight-point outing for Delaney, as she would pick up assists on four different Pioneer goals in the first half. Saint Thomas Aquinas (8-5, 4-2 ECC) would even the score thanks to the first of two goals from senior attacker Samantha Lowney (Valley Cottage, N.Y.).
LIU Post would then beat junior goalie Kaitlyn Lonergan (Stony Point, N.Y.) seven straight times to close out the first half of play with an 8-1 lead. Sophomore attacker
Stefani Vagelatos (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y.) started the rally off of a feed from fellow sophomore
Cara Douglas (West Islip, N.Y.), who would pick up the next goal on a feed from Delaney. Junior midfielder
Honey Roche (Centerport, N.Y.) would tally the next two goals to put the Pioneers up by four, and the first half would close with a pair of goals from Vagelatos and a marker from Pierro. In total, LIU Post outshot Saint Thomas Aquinas by a 12-9 margin in the first half.
The Spartans mounted a comeback as the second half got underway, scoring three of the first four goals in the latter stanza of the contest. LIU Post answered with the triumvirate of Roche, Delaney and Pierro, who combined for four of the final five tallies in the game to produce the final margin.
Delaney (3G, 5A) topped the scoresheet for the green and gold, while Pierro tallied three goals and two assists. Pierro became the first Pioneer to reach 40 goals for the season, while Delaney's eight points have her at a team-best 65 points on the year. Roche added three goals and a helper of her own, while Vagelatos earned a hat trick on six total shots. Pierro and sophomore midfielder
Connor Bird (Syosset, N.Y.) each registered six draw control victories, as LIU Post dominated the opposition in that statistic, winning 14 draws and losing just six. Freshman goalkeeper
Olivia Kirk (Farmingdale, N.Y.) made seven saves in cage for the Pioneers as she picked up her 10th victory of the season.
Prior to the contest, the three members of the senior class of 2015---Pierro and senior defenders
Kali Maxwell (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and
Emily Hanifan (Hicksville, N.Y.) were honored in a pregame ceremony. The trio of seniors have now won a total of 67 games, collecting a winning percentage of .905 for their respective careers.
Head Coach
Meghan McNamara and the LIU Post women's lacrosse team will venture to Pennsylvania for an out-of-conference tussle with West Chester on Wednesday (Apr. 22). The opening draw is set for 4 p.m. The match-up is the first meeting between the Pioneers and the Golden Rams since 2013.