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| Liza Gross had
three goals, three assists and a team high four ground balls in the Skyhawks 28-3 win |
Yellow Jackets Fall Prey To No. 7 Skyhawks
Easton, Mass. - The seventh ranked Stonehill women's lacrosse team rebounded from their first loss of the season with a 28-3 blowout of AIC behind excellent performances from All-Americans Michelle Kelly (Mendham, N.J.) and Liza Gross (Loudonville, N.Y.) at W.B. Mason Stadium on Thursday afternoon.
Kelly scored five times and dished out four assists, while Gross had a great all-around performance with three goals, three assists, three caused turnovers, four ground balls and five draw controls.
The Skyhawks wasted little time asserting their dominance over the Yellow Jackets, as freshman Leyla Kuz-Dworzak (Norwalk, Conn.) opened up the scoring on a free position shot just 22 seconds into the contest.
Senior Mary Maloney (Great River, N.Y.) scored less than 15 seconds later to push the lead to two. Gross put home her seventh goal of the season a minute after that to give Stonehill a 3-0 advantage.
Over the next 11 minutes, the Skyhawks allowed AIC just two free position shots, both of which were denied by goalie Justine Ferland (Portsmouth, N.H.). Stonehill, on the other hand, added to their total with two goals from Kelly, two from freshman Sarah Galligan (West Newbury, Mass.), one from freshman Carly Keeley (Agawam, Mass.), one from Gross and another score from Maloney to go up 10-0 just 13 minutes into the game.
Stonehill scored twice more before the end of the half, but an Alex Hudyka goal with 3:00 minutes ended any hope for a shutout and kept score 12-1 going into the half.
In the second, the Skyhawks outscored the Yellow Jackets 5-1 over the first ten minutes and then 4-1 over the next ten as Galligan's third goal of the game pushed the lead to 21-3 at the 11:35 mark.
Stonehill scored seven times in the final ten minutes with four freshmen netting goals as they cruised to the 28-3 win.
Ferland was forced to make just four saves in net for the Skyhawks, and only one in the second half as Stonehill controlled the ball for much of the final 30 minutes. In addition to Kelly and Gross scoring, Maloney had four tallies while Galligan recorded her first career hat trick.
The No. 7 Skyhawks improve to 3-1 with the win and 3-0 in NE-10 play. They return to action on Monday when they travel to take on conference foe Southern New Hampshire at 4:00 p.m.