Maclay's Career-High Six Goals Sends Stony Brook Past Loyola In NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championship
Rob Washburn
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Senior Courtney Maclay scored a career-high six goals as CAA champion Stony Brook pulled away late for an 11-8 victory over Loyola (Md.) in the first round of the NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Championship on Friday afternoon at rainy Alumni Stadium.
The Seawolves (16-4) advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the 12
th consecutive year, where they will face No. 2 seed Boston College (17-2) at Noon on Sunday.
Maclay, who hadn’t scored more than two goals in a game all season, contributed four of SBU’s first five goals to lead the Seawolves’ offensive attack. Isabella Caporuscio recorded a hat trick and Alexandra Fusco had the other two tallies.
Stony Brook’s sixth-ranked defense also came up big, limiting Loyola to just one goal over the game’s final 21 minutes. Goalkeeper Natalia Altebrando finished with eight saves.
Neither team led by more than two in a tightly contested opening half. After nearly 10 scoreless minutes to start the contest, Maclay gave the Seawolves a 1-0 lead with 5:11 left in the first quarter. Loyola responded with a pair of scores, but goals from Maclay and Caporuscio in the final 15 seconds of the stanza put Stony Brook up 3-2 after one.
The Greyhounds drew even to start the second quarter, but back-to-back goals from Maclay gave the Seawolves a 5-3 edge midway through the period. Loyola tied it once again, but SBU took momentum into halftime with a goal from Fusco and another on a free position shot by Caporuscio with 6.1 seconds on the clock to make it 7-5 at the break.
Loyola battled back to tie, 7-7, midway through the third quarter. However, Maclay came up big once again, scoring with 11 seconds left in the period to make it 8-7 after three.
It was all Stony Brook in the final 15 minutes. Caporuscio completed her hat trick in the opening minute of the fourth quarter to up the lead to 9-7 and Maclay’s goal with 6:37 left increased the margin to three. Fusco capped the scoring with her second goal with 3:23 to go.