PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers women's lacrosse (5-7, 0-5) picked up its signature victory of the season, defeating No. 6 Stony Brook (9-3, 4-0), 12-7, on Wednesday night at SHI Stadium. The win was the third over a top-10 opponent under head coach
Melissa Lehman and the program's first regular season win over a top-six team in school history.
The victory avenged back-to-back loses to the Seawolves in the past two NCAA Tournaments and marked the first win over Stony Brook in the all-time series. RU allowed just two goals in the second half and muscled a 15-7 advantage on the draw to earn the marquee win in Piscataway.
"Tonight is a huge win for our program," Lehman said. "Stony Brook has been such a consistent team for a while now, and we came close last year but couldn't pull it out. This team had this game circled on the calendar once the schedule came out, and I told them we were close. I am so proud of the way they played tonight."
Junior goalkeeper
Sophia Cardello registered 12 saves on the night and seven in the second half, as Rutgers held the Seawolves well below their 32 shots-per-game average with 23 attempts on cage. The Scarlet Knights converted an impressive 15-of-16 clear attempts and earned key possessions thanks to eight draw controls from senior
Meghan Ball and six from classmate
Cassidy Spilis.
Spilis (four goals, one assist), graduate student
Marin Hartshorn (three goals) and rookie
Ava Kane (three goals) all tallied hat tricks to pace RU on offense, while senior
Jenna Byrne dished out three helpers to eclipse the 100-career point milestone.
"We have just kept our chemistry going as a team," Spilis said. "Every night is an opportunity for us to go out there and have some fun. We put it together tonight and it worked out for us. "Stony Brook is a really talented team, but they ended our season two years in a row, so this is really huge for us."
Stony Brook scored the first goal of the night before freshman
Lily Dixon found a cutting Kane to tie the score 1-1 with 7:50 left in the quarter. Both teams would trade goals down the stretch before the first break, as Byrne found Kane for her second goal of the night to make it 4-4 after the first 15 minutes of action.
Rutgers tallied a 3-1 scoring advantage in the second quarter, which included two goals from Spilis and a free-position score from senior
Ashley Campo. Spilis' second goal of the quarter came at the first-half buzzer off her own free-position attempt, as the Scarlet Knights took a 7-5 lead into the locker room.
The Seawolves would attempt a comeback in the second half, but RU would counter throughout. Leading just 8-7 with three minutes left in the third, Spilis found Harshorn and junior
Mikayla Dever dished to Kane on back-to-back goals for a 10-7 lead with one quarter to play. RU's defense would hold Stony Brook scoreless in the final 15 minutes of play to hold on to its biggest win of the season.
Up Next
Rutgers is on the road at Vermont on Saturday in Burlington. First draw is set for Noon, with a live stream on ESPN3.
