The women’s lacrosse team (2-1 overall) notched an overwhelming victory Wednesday night in the pouring rain against Central Connecticut State University in its home opener by a score of 14-4.
The Leopards struggled early on, but as the game progressed, the Blue Devils could not keep up with Lafayette’s vibrant scoring attack. The Maroon and White had five different scorers put multiple shots past the goalie, with senior midfielder Abby Romano’s hat trick leading the way.
“This is a great win to have early in the season and a very exciting game that we can learn a lot from,” senior defender Kyra O’Driscoll said. “We’ve been working really hard and can’t wait for another home gameplay.”
The game started fast for the Leopards, who netted two goals within the first five minutes from the sticks of Romano and junior midfielder Sophia Spallone. The Blue Devils were able to respond with a goal of their own to pull within one.
The teams then traded goals to end the first quarter, and the game looked like it was going to be a dogfight, but in the second, the Maroon and White dominated all areas.
The Leopards outscored the Blue Devils 4-0 in the second quarter thanks to goals from Romano, junior attacker Emma Elman, sophomore attacker Olivia Hover and sophomore midfielder Olivia Kelley. Defensively, senior goalie Lexie Coldiron locked down the cage en route to tallying an astounding 10 ground balls.
“Lexie is a superstar, insane, so, so confident,” senior midfielder Colleen McNamara said. “Every single save she makes gets the whole entire team hype.”
The teams emerged from the locker room after the half with the Leopards carrying a 7-2 lead. That lead was quickly extended with senior midfielder Clare Culligan rifling a shot past the goalie less than a minute into the third quarter. Central Connecticut State responded with a quick goal of its own, but from there, both defenses took over as neither team ceded another goal for the rest of the quarter.
“A lot of things are clicking on both sides of the ball and in transition and we are excited to keep it rolling,” Culligan said.
In the fourth quarter, the Leopards’ offense broke through again. The squad tallied six goals while only allowing one Blue Devils shot to hit the back of the net. This scoring barrage came from all sides, with Culligan, Spallone, Kelly and junior attacker Sara Rogers all tallying their second goals of the season, sophomore midfielder Kendra Daly putting through her first career goal and Romano completing her hat trick.
This is the Montclair, New Jersey native’s second straight game with a hat trick, bringing her season goal tally to 10 in just three games — a figure only seven shy of her previous season-long record.
“It was a full team effort from the bench to the field,” Romano said. “Everyone on the team is great at motivating each other.”
“The offense had a day,” McNamara said. “Especially in the last quarter after [head coach Katie McConnell’s] talk to encourage us to get creative and play a bit more loose, that’s where a lot of our insane shots came from and extended our lead.”
This is the Leopards’ second straight win, a feat they did not accomplish at any point last season. They are already out to their best start since before the pandemic and will next take on Bryant University in their Athlete Ally game tomorrow.
“To have a 10-goal win is huge for us heading into another game this weekend, and just really [taught] us how to stay up for the entire 60 minutes,” McNamara said. “This gives us loads for confidence, and of course winning is so fun and cheering and being all together in that aspect, so huge for chemistry as well.”
