The Drexel University women’s lacrosse team was looking for their first win in Colonial Athletic Association conference play when they traveled to Hempstead, New York, to play Hofstra University April 15. A great first half had the Dragons with the lead, but Hofstra battled back in the second half to give the Dragons their third loss in a row.
The Dragons opened the first half of play with a very strong start. Star freshman Colleen Grady, who leads the Dragons in goals and assists for the season, scored the first goal of the game with 22:14 to play until halftime.
Another standout freshman Karson Harris, who is second in goals for the season behind Grady, scored for the Dragons just 43 seconds later to put them up 2-0. Harris scored again a minute and a half later off a free position shot.
Junior Maggie Stetson made her ninth goal of the season unassisted with 16:07 to play in the first half. The Dragons now had a four-point lead against the Pride.
After a timeout by Hofstra, the Pride were able to get on the board with a goal from Alexa Mattera with just under 15 minutes left to play. But another run from Drexel increased the Dragons’ lead even more.
With 12:35 to play, Grady scored again unassisted. She was followed about two minutes later with another goal from Harris. Senior Alex Beilman got her eighth goal of the season with 9:18 to put the Dragons up 7-1.
Hofstra was able to make a slight comeback when they went on a 3-0 run in the last nine minutes of play to bring the score to 7-4.
On a man-up play, Harris grabbed her fourth goal of the game and 25th of the season to end the first half helping the Dragons to lead 8-4.
A few fouls on Drexel and a yellow card given to junior Lindsay Shettle gave Hofstra the opportunity to make two more goals at the start of the second half to reduce Drexel’s lead to only two.
Hofstra continued their run tying the game 8-8 with 21:02 left to play, but scored three more goals before the Dragons could put it away. Hofstra was then leading 11-8 with 14:08 to play.
Stetson scored twice for the Dragons bringing them back within one goal of Hofstra with 7:07 left on the clock. Four minutes later, the Dragons saw themselves trailing again by three with only three minutes left.
The final goal was scored by Beilman with 1:26 left to play, but it unfortunately wasn’t enough to win. Hofstra took the point in CAA play winning 13-11.
Currently, the Dragons are 3-10 on the season and 0-3 in CAA play putting them in last place in the CAA standings. In order to play in the semifinal round of the CAA championships, which will occur May 4 in Harrisonburg, Virginia, they will need to be in the top four in the conference.
The Dragons have only three more games left in their regular season to move up in the standings. They will host the College of William & Mary April 20 at 6 p.m., Elon University April 22 at 1 p.m. and then travel to Newark, Delaware to play the University of Delaware April 27. All three of these teams are currently ranked higher than Drexel in the CAA standings. Defeating all three would allow the Dragons to potentially clinch one of the four semifinal spots.