Hofstra women’s lacrosse team fall to Loyola Maryland in NCAA tournament opener

Hofstra entered the NCAA Women‘s Lacrosse tournament as a team in general and came away with a generalized headache. Pride didn’t play well enough to win their first-round match on Friday, falling to Loyola Maryland, 11-9, at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, but they took the Greyhounds to the brink, proving they absolutely belonged. on the ground. on 29.

“I don’t think anybody thought we could win this game and I think we showed what Hofstra lacrosse is today, in that we are a good lacrosse team and we deserve to be respected “Hofstra coach Shannon Smith said.

It was third place in the NCAA Hofstra and the first since 2007.

Hofstra hit back after deficits of 7-3 and 8-4 to tie the score at 9 with 5:30 left in the game. The Pride (6-7) scored four consecutive goals in 5:55, punctuated by the equalizer of Jackie Gatti.

Elli Kluegel scored the winner with 1:40 to go and Sydni Black added an insurance goal with 1:10 to go. Loyola (12-2) will face third-seeded Syracuse at 1 p.m. Sunday in the second round.

“We just started to finish our shots,” Smith said of the comeback. “We had chances, we just weren’t finishing our shots… Defensively, we really stepped up and made some amazing saves.

“I thought our defense had done everything we could. Eventually, in a game like this, the ball is going to bounce in the direction of a team. Our team fought really hard and Loyola took a shot. extra that we did. ”

Alyssa Parrella led Hofstra with three goals and two assists. Katie Whelan had two goals and two assists and Grace Langella added two goals. Goalkeeper Jess Smith made nine saves.

Loyola’s Kluegel led all scorers with four goals and Garden City native Kaitlyn Larsson made 12 saves.

After taking a 3-2 lead with 17:01 left in the half, Pride failed to score again until the first minute of the second half.

“I thought we were doing a great job starting to fake and flip the ball,” Smith said of the flip. “[Whelan] and [Parrella] brought high heat by pulling the ball. We thank the girls for changing their focus and for doing what they need to do on the pitch. ”

Parrella, who was in her last game for Hofstra, scored her 261st career goal and rose to 10th in NCAA women’s lacrosse history.

“I think Alyssa deserves a lot more respect from Division I and a lot more recognition than she gets,” said Smith, referring to Parrella not making the list of nominations for the award. Tewaaraton, awarded to the country’s best lacrosse player. “… She deserved to be on that top 25 list for the Tewaaraton. She will be the best player to ever leave Hofstra and the CAA conference.”