The No. 20 women’s lacrosse team fell this past Sunday to the No. 8 Stony Brook Seawolves on the road in Long Island. The loss drops them to 9-7 entering the season finale, while Stony Brook improves to 11-3.
Hopkins opened the game with three goals in the first 10 minutes, the first coming courtesy of junior midfielder Haley Schweizer less than two minutes into play. Just 75 seconds later, sophomore attack Emily Kenul doubled the lead with senior attack Jenna Reifler collecting the assist. Senior Dene’ DiMartino scored just before the 10-minute mark to give the Jays the 3-0 lead early in the game.
The Seawolves’ Preseason All-American junior attack Dorrien van Dyke would capitalize on a free position attempt at the 15:49 mark to cut the Lady Jays lead to two. Hopkins, however, would quickly add on two more goals, the first coming from sophomore midfielder Shannon Fitzgerald, with the assist coming from her teammate, sophomore attacker CeCe Finney.
Just over a minute later, Finney would score a goal of her own, with Reifler picking up her second assist on the game, to give Hopkins a 5-1 lead. Stony Brook cut this lead to three after junior Courtney Murphy scored with 1:26 left to play in the half, and the two teams headed to the locker room for halftime with the Jays holding the 5-2 advantage.
The tide turned quickly at the start of the second half, with the Seawolves scoring five straight goals within the first five minutes of the period to give them a 7-5 lead. From then on Stony Brook did not look back.
While the Jays were able to trim the lead to one, courtesy of a goal by DiMartino at the 18:22 mark, the Seawolves scored the next three goals to give them a 10-6 lead with just seconds left to play. With just 17.2 seconds left to play, DiMartino capped off her eighth hat trick of the season, bringing the final score to 10-7.
DiMartino attributed Stony Brook’s comeback to their ability to dominate the draws in the second half.
“Draws were a huge factor of the second half,” the senior said. “They controlled, I believe, the first four and scored off of every possession, which really gave them momentum. Then they started stalling once they were up by a few and made it really hard for us to get the ball back.”
The Jays remain confident going into the season finale against Boston College.
“I think for BC [Boston College] we want to end our regular season on a great win,” Schweizer said. “We have had a big win against a higher ranked team waiting for us for some time now. I hope the energy that we bring into that game exceeds all games this season.”
DiMartino acknowledged the importance of the game for the team.
“We know we need a solid win against a ranked opponent so we absolutely need this game to have any chance of making our ultimate goal to be in the tournament,” she said. “I know for us seniors, we especially don’t want this to be our last game.”
Whether the team makes the tournament, both Schweizer and DiMartino said they were proud of their teammates’ efforts all season long.
“We gave every team a fight that’s for sure including top-ranked Maryland and even Stanford, we just couldn’t finish one of those big games, which is a huge bummer,” DiMartino said.
Schweizer commended her team’s ability to stick together even when faced with frustration.
“Seven losses is hard on any team, and it can be easy to turn on each other or throw the towel in and give up, and I can proudly say that my team never once did this,” she said.
The Jays will next travel up to Newton, Mass. to play the Boston College Eagles in the season finale on Saturday, April 23. Faceoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.
At 9-7, the Jays will be in line for a playoff bid, but certainly the onus is on them to prove they are capable of taking down some top teams and making a run.
Hopkins has sometimes struggled to defend high-flying offenses this year, and that will undoubtedly be one of their main priorities moving forward.
This is a team with a ton of senior leadership, especially DiMartino, who has had an incredible career by any measure during her time here. Teams with that kind of senior firepower tend to make some noise in the postseason in any sport.
