Lacrosse losing streak lives another day

By Sarah F. Griffin

Rider lacrosse suffered their third straight loss this season on March 29 against the Fairfield Stags in a game that ended 17-7. 

Starting out hot

The matchup at Fairfield University’s Rafferty Stadium started with two goals for the Broncs in the first quarter. The first goal was shot by graduate student attacker Anna Devlin and the second was shot by senior attacker Selena Carrington. The play after her goal, Carrington then received a green card and had to sit out of the game for one minute. 

The Stags answered Rider’s two-goal start by scoring two goals themselves.

Carrington received another green card soon after Fairfield’s second goal. With the Broncs shaken, Fairfield scored another two goals, making the score 2-4 in favor of Fairfield going into the second quarter.

Fairfield started the second quarter with two straight goals, giving them a total of six points. 

Rider goalie Jamie Kubach saved a goal by Fairfield, but Fairfield scored three more goals in the quarter.

In turn, the Broncs scored two goals: the first by junior attacker Katie Walsh and the second by freshman attacker Elizabeth Shean. The game’s rhythm repeated in the third quarter, with Fairfield scoring three shots on the Broncs, who scored two points.

The first goal came from Walsh and the second goal came from senior attacker Toni Gismondi. The Stags scored four points to Rider’s two in the third quarter. 

In the final quarter, the Broncs had one successful goal that was scored by Walsh, while the Stags shot four. The final score of the game was 17-7, in favor of the Stags.

On the team’s loss, women’s lacrosse Head Coach Evan Mager said in an email “obviously, today is not a result we want to see- Fairfield is pre-season number one for our conference and they are the type of team you need to play close to perfect to be able to beat.”  

“We started off the game strong with a very specific game plan which was a new plan compared to other games we had played in,” Mager continued. 

“Unfortunately we were not able to execute the plan for 60 minutes which is needed in our game. Our hope is to grow from this and move into next week stronger so we can get back on track in conference play,” said Mager.

“As for the game, despite the loss, we fought hard and were able to identify things we can do better that will make us successful in the rest of conference play,” Carrington said.

“Fairfield notoriously has a great program, being ranked top in the MAAC [Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference] almost every year,” said Gismondi.

“I think there were definitely highs during the game for Rider, coming out strong in the first quarter, but also lapses during the entirety of the game. Still being a young team, I was still proud of our effort on the field, and if anything we will use this as fuel in the upcoming conference games,” Gismondi continued.

Rider will hope to break its losing streak in its next MAAC match at home against Mount Saint Mary’s on April 2 at 4 p.m.