Feb. 25, 2009

Box Score

NEWARK, Del. --The Saint Joseph's women's lacrosse team won 10-8 over the Delaware Blue Hens at Rullo Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.  SJU saw four players tally at least two points including freshman Jen Peters who notched a game-high four goals.  Suzy Herlihy was stellar in net, stopping 11 saves for the Hawks.

Saint Joseph's (2-1) came out of the gate quickly thanks to goals by seniors Abby Renninger and Jessica Westlake just 5:41 into the game. 

After a UD score at 18:23 in the first, Peters struck for the first time off a Helene Tursi pass to give SJU a 3-1 advantage with 15:34 remaining.

Two more Blue Hen tallies brought them even with the Hawks at three with six minutes to go in the first but a last second goal from Peters gave SJU a 4-3 half time lead.  Jenna Martino dished the assist to Peters.

Delaware (0-1) tied the game again, this time at four with 24:22 remaining.  Tursi answered right back just 1:15 later on a Renninger assist.  Free position goals by Martino and Peters stretched the lead to three at 7-4, the largest of the game with 18:23 to go.

The Blue Hens wouldn't give in, answering with two quick goals of their own just 49 seconds apart, narrowing their deficit to one with 15:26 left. 

One last run by Saint Joseph's would put the game away for good as Peters, Tursi and Meghan McDevitt notched three goals over the course of 6:19 to lift SJU to a 9-6 lead with just under seven minutes remaining.  Delaware would add two unassisted tallies to cap the scoring for the afternoon.

Herlihy stood tall in net withstanding an early barrage of shots by Delaware.  She made seven critical saves when the Hawks were out-shot 12-7.   Herlihy was named the Atlantic 10 Co-Player of the Week on Monday.

UD would go on to out shoot Saint Joseph's 26-19 overall for the game.  All 19 shots by SJU reached the net, 53 percent got past the Delaware keepers.

This was the first meeting between the two squads and it served as the season opener for the Blue Hens.  Saint Joseph's will return to action on Saturday as the team will travel to Staten Island to play the Wagner Seahawks.  The first draw is slated for 1:00 p.m.

BOX SCORE                1          2          Total

Saint Joseph's                4          6          10

Delaware                       3          5          8

SJU Goals: Jen Peters 4 (7), Helene Tursi 2 (5), Jenna Martino (7), Abby Renninger (2), Jessica Westlake (2)

SJU Assists: Martino 2 (3), Alli MacDonald (1), Renninger (1), Tursi (1)

SJU Points: Peters 4 (8), Martino 3 (10), Tursi 3 (6), Renninger 2 (3), MacDonald (1), Westlake (3)

- SJU -