Kean - 9; Farmingdale State - 7
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. | Farmingdale State College women's lacrosse senior attacker Athena Vogiatzis (Holtsville, N.Y.) scored her 100th career point on a free-position goal with five seconds remaining in the first period Wednesday night against Kean University, who topped the host Rams by a 9-7 margin.
Vogiatzis scored a pair of first-half goals for the host Rams (2-4), while junior midfielder Megan Diamond (Dix Hills, N.Y.) led her side with three points (2g, a) while adding three draw controls. Sophomore Molly Espey (W. Hempstead, N.Y.) added a goal and team-best four draw controls, with senior Ashley Codispoti (Patchogue, N.Y.) and junior Nicole Pontecorvo (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) adding one goal apiece. Senior defender Celina Schenk (Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) caused two turnovers in front of FSC senior netminder Ronnie Reilly (Oceanside, N.Y.), who made five of her eight saves in the second half of play.
The visiting Cougars (2-4) went up by two goals five minutes into action, before Vogiatzis's free-position tally sliced the Farmingdale State deficit to 2-1 through one period. After Pontecorvo scored off the first assist of the season by freshman Jordyn Neu (New Hyde Park, N.Y.) 61 seconds into the second stanza, a Kean tally preceded free-position markers by Codispoti and Vogiatzis at the 11:09 and 7:54 marks, respectively, with FSC carrying a 4-3 edge at halftime.
Espey scored off a Diamond feed as a Rams yellow card was about to release less than two minutes into the second half, before the Cougars ripped off three-straight goals to go ahead by a 6-5 count. Diamond's fifth goal of the season ripped the rope in the final six seconds of the third period to level the score at 6-all.
Kean netted a trio of goals within a 66-second span to take a 9-6 lead with 6:15 remaining, before Diamond pulled one goal back with 5:04 to go. The Rams fired three shots over the final three-plus minutes of play at Cougars keeper Nicole Peters (five saves), but were unable to tally again before time expired.
Head coach Erin Calkins will next lead Farmingdale State into non-conference play Tuesday (March 28), when it travels to Madison, N.J., for a 4:30 p.m. opening draw at Drew University.