Women's Lacrosse Opens NEC Play Hosting Long Island
3/22/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
March 22, 2007
Sacred Heart vs. Long Island Game Notes in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
Sacred Heart Pioneers (1-3, 0-0 NEC) vs. Long Island (0-4, 0-0 NEC)
Friday, March 23, 2007 - 3:00 pm - Fairfield, Connecticut / Campus Field (4,000)
SHU Opens NEC Play Hosting the Blackbirds... The Pioneers open the Northeast Conference portion of their schedule Friday afternoon hosting the Long Island Blackbirds. Sacred Heart has been off since March 14th after their game with Villanova was postponed last weekend. SHU takes the field looking to end a three-game slide while the Blackbirds are searching for their first win of 2007.
The Series... The Pioneers lead the all-time series, 4-0. The Pioneers posted a 10-8 win at Long Island last season. SHU hosts LIU on Friday and have twice won on their home field, a 12-8 win over the Blackbirds in 2005 and 7-6 in 2004. The two teams met for the first time in 2003, LIU's first season of competition, with the Pioneers posting a 10-5 win in Brooklyn.
Up Next... Sacred Heart continues their NEC opening weekend this Sunday when they host Robert Morris at 12:00 pm.
Last Meeting with Long Island... Junior Heather Gureckis scored three goals with two assists while senior Emily Tully scored three times herself to help the Sacred Heart women's lacrosse team to a 10-8 victory at Long Island University on March 26th last season. Long Island University junior Amy Rizzo opened the scoring, registering a goal just 39 seconds into the game. The Pioneers netted the game's next two goals by Tully and Gureckis to take a 2-1 lead. The Blackbirds battled back and scored with just seven second left to cut the margin to 5-4 at the half. Tully registered two scores in the first thirty seconds of the second stanza and the Pioneers took an 8-4 lead on Mary Montesarchio's goal at 24:03. Montesarchio and Gureckis posted back to back scores at 21:56 and 19:48 to give SHU its biggest lead at 10-5. LIU scored three-straight to cut it to 10-8 by 12:43 mark but that's were the game held as the Pioneers picked-up the win.
Last Time Out... Sacred Heart got five goals between senior Brianna Bubeck and junior Liz Ottey but the Pioneers gave up 10 second half goals as Stony Brook came away with a 16-12 win Wednesday afternoon. SHU got out to a 2-1 lead 10 minutes in but the Seawolves rattled off three-straight scores to pull ahead 4-2 with 13:23 left. Both teams went scoreless for the next six minutes before Bubeck tacked on a pair of scores at 7:56 and 7:03 to pull the game even and jumped in front 6-5 with 45 seconds left. The Seawolves won the ensuing draw tied the game eight seconds later to send the teams to the locker room tied at 6-6. Stony Brook grabbed control of the game in the first 10 minutes of action in the second half, outscoring SHU 4-1 to take a 10-7 lead with 20:43. Another long scoreless stretch between the two teams, 10:37, gave way when SHU cut the lead to two, 10-8. A three-goal run by Stony Brook that started at the 5:25 mark put the game away. The Seawolves got six points on five goals and assist from Amy Taylor.
SHU Among the Nation's Stat Leaders... The Sacred Heart Pioneers are currently tied for 8th in this week's NCAA rankings in draw controls per game. The Pioneers and Duke Blue Devils are both averaging 14.25 draws per game. Maryland leads the nation at 17.67. Senior Brianna Bubeck is 4th in the country in draw wins at 20 (5.00 per game). Sophomore Amanda Williams is tied for 30th at 2.75. SHU is tied with Villanova and Syracuse for 10th on the caused turnovers per game list at 11.00 per game. Quinnipiac is tops in the land at 15.60. Senior Maureen Hohn is 5th in the country at 2.75 caused turnovers per game (11).
Pioneers in the NEC Stat Rankings... The Pioneers are among the conference leaders offensively and defensively. SHU is 2nd in the NEC in goals per game (10.50) and points per game (15.25). The Pioneers and Monmouth are the only two teams averaging double digit goals per game. SHU is 3rd in the league in assists (4.75), 2nd in shots per game (24.50) and shot percentage (.429). Defensively, the Pioneers ranked 2nd in caused turnovers (11.00), 4th in goals against (12.20) and 5th in save percentage (.479).
Bubeck Closing in on 100 Career Points... Sacred Heart senior Brianna Bubeck is closing in on the 100 point plateau for her career. Bubeck is off to a strong start with 15 points on 11 goals and four assists. In her three years at Sacred Heart, Bubeck has 76 goals and 22 assists (98 points). Bubeck in 9th on the SHU all-time point list, 9th on the all-time goals scored list and tied for 8th on the all-time assists list.
History... This is the Pioneer's ninth year of competition in the Northeast Conference. Sacred Heart has qualified for the NEC Tournament five times and posts a 81-68 Division I record. The Pioneers have posted 10 wins three times and have not had a losing season since 1998.
