Hofstra women's lacrosse posts blowout over St. Mary's (Calif.) in tuneup for Notre Dame

         Despite having a highly anticipated matchup against eighth ranked Notre Dame this Tuesday the Hofstra women’s lacrosse team showed no signs of looking ahead to the Fighting Irish in its opening game Saturday against St. Mary’s (Calif.). After falling behind 2-0 the Pride scored 19 straight goals in route to a 21-3 win that head coach Abby Morgan hopes gets her team adequately prepared for a stiff test in just three days.
         When the Hofstra-Notre Dame game was initially conceived on the schedule the Fighting Irish wanted to make it as the Pride’s opener but Morgan made sure her team would at least have one game under their belt before taking on a top 10 program. Morgan is hopeful that Saturday’s St. Mary’s game, which featured 11 different Hofstra scorers, combined with scrimmages against Brown and Dartmouth last weekend will give the Pride the needed preparation to pull off an upset win against the Irish.
        “I think that we’re a little bit more prepared for playing Notre Dame,” said Morgan of how important it was to schedule two scrimmages and one game prior to Tuesday’s big showdown. “It is nice to have that confidence going in.”
        Hofstra achieved plenty of confidence in its rout of St. Mary’s, especially from freshmen Jackie Ardolino and Lauren Chandler, who each registered hat tricks in their collegiate debuts. Junior Stephanie Rice also achieved a hat trick and the Pride had seven different players tally multiple goals. The 21 goals was the second most in Hofstra women's lacrosse history behind only a 23-5 win over Davidson in the 1996 season opener.
       Tuesday will mark the third straight year that Hofstra plays Notre Dame with the Pride falling 17-15 last season and 14-13 in 2008. When Hofstra and Notre Dame line up for the opening draw at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Irish will not have the services of Jill Byers, who scored six goals against Hofstra last year during her senior campaign and four versus the Pride in 2008. 
       “If we can control possession and be patient with our opportunities and get the goals that are given to us… I think we’ll be in good shape,” said Morgan.