Boxscore
Photo Courtesy of Mark Campbell

NEWARK, Del. -- Junior attack Nicole Flego scored the last two goals of the game in a late Blue Hen rally, but the University of Delaware women’s lacrosse team fell to Saint Joseph’s 10-8 in its season opener at Rullo Stadium Wednesday afternoon.

The Hawks snapped a Delaware nine-game non-league home win streak handing the Blue Hens their first non-league loss since Apr. 19, 2006 when they fell to Johns Hopkins.

Delaware was led by sophomore attack Corinne Drost, sophomore midfielder Brittany Davis (at right) and Flego, who tallied two goals apiece. The Hens also got goals from their leading scorer in 2008, Emily Schaknowski and sophomore midfielder Julianna Jeffers.

Head coach Kim Ciarrocca used both senior Jessica Cerveny and sophomore Makenzie Worthington in goal, with Worthington picking up the loss. Cerveny made the start in the Blue Hen goal and allowed seven goals in 45:26 while making five saves. Worthington played 14:34, all in the second half, and gave up three goals to go with four stops.

Saint Joseph’s (2-1) was led by freshman attack Jen Peters, who had four goals (seven on the season), three ground balls and one caused turnover. Senior attack Helene Tursi tallied two goals and an assist, and Jenna Martino posted one goal and two asissts. Six different Hawks scored on the day, and they had five assists to just two by UD.

Suzy Herlihy, a former Blue Hen, made the start in goal for Saint Joseph’s today, picking up the win with 11 saves and eight goals allowed. Herlihy played in five games and started one in 2006 for Delaware before transfering.

The Hawks jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first six minutes of action on unassisted goals by Abby Reninger and Jessica Westlake. Westlake harassed the goalkeeper Cerveny until she eventually coughed up the ball in front of the net and Westlaker put it in at 24:19 to give the Hawks a 2-0 advantage.

After a Delaware timeout, Drost scored Delaware’s first goal of the year at 18:23 off an assist from sophomore midfiedler Ali Libertini to cut SJU’s lead to 2-1. SJU’s Peters would up the lead to two again with a goal at 15:34, but UD’s Davis and Jeffers scored back-to-back goals at 9:07 and 6:13 to tie the score at three.

Just when it looked like the teams would be tied going into the intermission, Peters struck again with just two seconds left in the half to give SJU a 4-3 lead at the break.

Not all Delaware momentum was lost however, as Davis scored her second goal of the day off an assist by Flego for the first goal of the second half nearly six minutes in for the game’s second tie.

After that though, SJU took the game over with the first of two three-goal runs. First Tursi scored off an assist from Renninger, and then Martino and Peters each scored free position goals as the Hawks took a 7-4 lead with 18:23 left to play.

Drost would scored her second goal of the day at 16:15 and Schaknowski her first at 15:26 to cut the deficit to just one at 7-6, but SJU mounted another three-goal run with goals by Peters, Tursi and McDevitt and take a 10-6 lead at the 6:55 mark. The four-goal difference would prove too much for Delaware, who got two unassisted goals by Flego in the final five and a half minutes to give the game its final score of 10-8.

The Blue Hens will be back in action on Mar. 4 as they host the Big East's Loyola (Md.) at 4 p.m.

- DDD -