MARCY, N.Y. – The SUNYIT Women's Lacrosse Team (5-0, 4-0 NEAC) stretched its program-best win streak to five games on Sunday, defeating the Nittany Lions of Penn St.-Abington (1-9, 1-2 NEAC) by a score of 19 to 5.
Plenty of Wildcats got in on the scoring action, as Nicole DiPiazza (Colonie, N.Y. / Colonie) led the way with a season-high 5 goals. Following her was junior Jenna Lashua (Heuvelton, N.Y. / Heuvelton), who netted 4 scores and 1 assist. Overall, eight different Wildcats found the back of the net on the day, including senior co-captain Taviot Jackowski (LaFayette, N.Y. / LaFayette), who had a spectacular day running the SUNYIT offense. Jackowski scored 3 goals and tied for the SUNYIT lead with 2 assists.
Also adding goals for the Wildcats were Krysta Beha (Marcy, N.Y. / Whitesboro) with 3, and Tierney McGlynn (Watervliet, N.Y. / Watervliet), Ana Exposto (Lisbon, Portugal / Amer. Int'l School of Mozambique), Taylor Holst (Rome, N.Y. / RFA), and Hanna Moore (Saratoga, N.Y. / OCC). Moore, in her second year on the SUNYIT squad, scored her first career goal with 1:18 remaining in the game on an assist from Jackowski, drawing big cheers from the home crowd.
While the Wildcats held a 7-2 lead at the half, the game remained relatively close into the second half, as Avery Winn scored back-to-back goals early in the second period to pull the Nittany Lions back to within five at 9-4. After a SUNYIT timeout, though, the Wildcats rattled off 7 unanswered goals to take a commanding 16-4 lead.
Winn finished with 4 goals to lead the Nittany Lions.
Defensively for the Wildcats, McGlynn had a terrific game, leading all players with a whopping 6 caused turnovers. McGlynn also picked up 6 groundballs to go along with a goal and 2 assists in what was easily the junior defender's best game of the season.
Despite the gaudy score differential, the Wildcats still faced a fair number of shots on defense, out shooting the Nittany Lions by a solid but not unreasonable 33 to 20. The shot total for the Nittany Lions made the play of Wildcat keeper Cassidy Thompson (Weedsport, N.Y. / Weedsport) that much more impressive. The junior made 9 saves on the day, her highest total of the season to date.
The Wildcats will now gear up for what will be their toughest test of the year thus far, as they host the Utica Pioneers in a non-conference game on Wednesday, April 9th. Game time is slated for 7:00 pm at Wildcat Field.
