HOBOKEN, N.J. (April 18, 2009) – Junior Alyssa Pigott scored five goals and sophomore Leah Wasserman totaled five points as the No. 11 Stevens Institute of Technology women's lacrosse team moved to 12-0 on the season with a 17-14 win over St. John Fisher College on Saturday afternoon at the De Baun Athletic Complex. Sophomore Pamela Loria also played an excellent game, tallying three goals and assisting on another, and senior Grace Sack got her 12th win of the season in goal.
The Ducks finished the contest with a 48-27 advantage in shots and picked up five more ground balls than the Cardinals (22-17). The Ducks, who are now 5-0 in the conference, won 21 of the 33 draws and were 4-of-9 on free-position attempts.
Sack made nine saves in goal for Stevens, and her counterpart Vicki Sahm (Baldwinsville, N.Y.) was solid, stopping 23 shots.
In addition to her five goals, Pigott had four ground balls and a team-high five draw controls, and sophomore midfielder Christine Smith had a goal, dished out three assists, and notched four draw controls. Wasserman ended the game with three scores and two assists, three draw controls, and a ground ball. Freshman Jenna Scheibling tallied twice for Stevens as sophomore Karen Federico, freshman Ashley Carey, and junior Kara Borzillo all scored once. The Stevens defense was led by senior Cassidy Callahan who had three draw controls and three ground balls.
Fisher was led by four goals from Lauren Glavin (Syracuse, N.Y.) and three from Meg Merriam (Baldwinsville, N.Y.) as the Cardinals were 4-for-4 on their free-position attempts.
Borzillo put the Ducks on top 1:24 into the action, intercepting a pass from Sahm and converting the ensuing 1-on-1 chance with the keeper. Loria and Federico followed with goals 15 seconds apart to give the Ducks a 3-0 lead, and Scheibling notched a free-position goal with 22:46 left in the first half.
The Cardinals came back to score three of the game's next four goals to make it 5-3 12:15 into the contest. Pigott and Wasserman scored back-to-back goals to push the Stevens lead back to four but Fisher answered with two tallies 2:02 apart to make it a 7-5 game at the half.
Each team tallied twice in the first 6:52 of the second, and it looked as if every time the Ducks would pull away, Fisher would find a way to fight back into the contest. Wasserman and Loria scored two in a row to make it 11-7 but the Cardinals netted goals 26 ticks apart to make it 11-9 with 15:27 left.
With 15:15 left, Scheibling recorded her second goal of the game thanks to a pretty feed from Wasserman, and 49 seconds later Carey gave Stevens a four-goal lead. Loria put away a nice look for Smith with 12:35 to go to make it a 14-9 game, but Fisher scored twice to climb back into the game with a little more than 10 minutes to play.
After the two Cardinals tallies, Pigott took over, scoring the final three Stevens goals of the afternoon to put the game away.
The Ducks will return to action on Sunday afternoon when they host Nazareth College at 1 p.m. in Hoboken. Stevens will honor its four seniors prior to the game.
