March 11, 2009

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA, Pa.--The Saint Joseph's women's lacrosse team held a two-goal lead with 20 minutes to play, but unfortunately for the Hawks, Rutgers closed with three straight tallies to win, 7-6, on Wednesday evening at Finnesey Field. Suzy Herlihy made a season-high 18 saves, while Jenna Martino provided four goals.

Rutgers (3-2) held a 4-2 lead after an early second-half goal, but Saint Joseph's (3-3) would run off four in a row in the next eight minutes to capture a 6-4 advantage. The four-goal barrage was highlighted by strikes from Jen Peters, Meghan McDevitt and a pair from Martino.

From that point on, however, SJU would falter down the stretch. Rutgers would find the back of the net with 15:40 remaining to cut the lead in half at 6-5. Two minutes and 16 seconds later, the Scarlet Knights knotted things up. Just 1:44 later, Rutgers would reclaim the lead, capping a 3-0 run in just four minutes.

The game featured physical play that led to the issuance of nine yellow cards on the evening, eight in the second half alone. Of the nine cards, SJU players received six of them, which put them at a disadvantage in the transition game. All three of Rutgers' goals during the comeback were in man-up situations.

In the first half the pace of play was up-tempo, but both goalkeepers kept the score down to just 3-2. Herlihy made 11 stops in the first half, while her counterpart Sandra Abel had nine. Abel made 12 saves for the Knights.

Rutgers stormed out of the gate quickly, notching a goal just 1:53 into the contest. SJU would claw back behind the strength of Martino's first goal off a Jessica Westlake assist at 19:09 left.

The Scarlet Knights put two more in the net at 8:05 and 4:09 before Martino capitalized on a free-position shot with 33 ticks left in the first half to send the teams into the break at 3-2 in favor of Rutgers.

SJU was out-shot, 36-26, overall in the game and edged 22-19 in ground balls. SJU won eight draws compared to Rutgers' seven and RU was 13-for-14 in clears to the Hawks' 12-for-18. The Knights collected 33 fouls to Saint Joseph's 27 and the Hawks committed 18 turnovers to RU's 11.

The Hawks will return to action on Saturday when they take on Drexel at 1:00 p.m. on Finnesey Field.