Boxscore

Photo Courtesy of Mark Campbell

NEWARK, Del. -- The University of Delaware women’s lacrosse team earned its first victory of the season as the Blue Hens used a 6-0 scoring run that bridged the end of the first half with the start of the second that propeled them to a 10-8 victory at Rullo Stadium Friday afternoon.

In a game that was marred by 55 fouls, 18 cards and five ejections, Delaware outshot Albany 26-23, picked up 19 groundballs to the Great Danes’ 15, and turned it over just 15 times to Albany’s 19. The Hens were led by senior captain Deb Sloan and sophomore attack Corinne Drost's (at right) three goals apiece.

Senior captain Deb Sloan opened the scoring for the afternoon in the first minute of play with a goal off an assist by Morgan Marino. Albany’s Kayla Best, who came into the game with 14 goals on the season, would tie the score 1-1 not a minute later with an unassisted goal.

The two teams would would trade goals two more times within the first ten minutes of the half. For Delaware, Sloan scored her second goal of the day off an assist from Libertini, and Alexis Curcio scored her first goal of the season. Albany’s Christine Grueniger would tie the score following both of those Blue Hen goals, scoring two of her three goals on the afternoon to tie the score at two and three apiece.

After Grueniger’s goal, however, the Great Danes went 25:18 without scoring - a drought that lasted the last 19 minutes of the first half and a little over six minutes of the second half. During that span, Delaware went on a 6-0 scoring run led by Drost’s three goals. First, sophomore midfielder Ali Libertini scored her first goal of the season off sophomore midfielder Holly Burman’s first assist. Then Aburn scored her second goal of the year off an assist by junior attack Emily Schaknowski. Following Drost’s first goal at 10:59, Schaknowski added her own goal at 7:53 to end the scoring for half. Delaware led 7-3 at intermission.

Drost picked up right where she left off in the second half, scoring two consecutive goals to give UD its largest lead of the afternoon, 9-3. But Albany’s Mel Rorie stopped the bleeding at 23:48 and Julie Bush followed with a goal at 16:05 to shrink Delaware’s lead to four. The Blue Hens went through an 11 minute scoring drought in that span.

Sloan would respond for Delaware, scoring an unassisted free-position goal at 13:48 to up the lead to 10-5. Rorie, Best and Grueniger would score the final three goals of the game for Albany, but it was too little too late, as Delaware won by the final, 10-8.

Delaware is back in action on Wed., Mar. 18 as the Blue Hens host Temple at Rullo Stadium.