FAIRFIELD, CT (March 27, 2009) – Sacred Heart junior Carissa Hauser (East Northport, NY) scored three goals and dished out four assists while senior Amanda Williams (Monroe, CT) scored four times to lead the Pioneers past Long Island, 14-10, in Northeast Conference action Friday afternoon. It was a tale of two halves as the Pioneers held a 10-2 lead at the break but needed to withstand a late Blackbird rally to improve to 2-0 in the NEC.

The first half was all Pioneers (4-5, 2-0 NEC) as SHU ran out to a 5-0 lead and scored 10 goals on 18 shots. Williams did all of her damage in the first half, scoring all four of her goals by the 8:43 mark. Sacred Heart struck first, just 36 seconds in as freshman Alicia Fuchs (Bay Shore, NY) scored unassisted. Hauser followed with her first of the day off a feed from freshman Kate Kmiotek (Farmingville, NY) at 27:08.

Williams made it 4-0 with back-to-back scores at 22:09 and 17:54, forcing a LIU timeout. Kmiotek made it a 5-0 SHU lead with her 13th goal of the year off a feed from junior Cori Horelik (South Windsor, CT). LIU briefly halted the Pioneer offense with a pair of scores at 12:49 and 11:28, coming off the sticks of Christie Wienckowski and Allison Funk.

The Pioneers closed the last 10 minutes of play in the first half with five more goals to lead by seven at the half. Williams started SHU's second 5-0 rally with an unassisted marker at 9:33 and her fourth from Hauser at 8:43. Horelik found the back of the net unassisted at 6:48 and senior Mary Montesarchio (Cortlandt Manor, NY) and Hauser made it 10-2 Pioneers with goals at 3:11 and 2:39.

The second half opened with Hauser's third goal of the day just less than four minutes in but the Blackbirds began to chip away and outscored SHU 6-1 over a 10 minute stretch to pull within four goals. Ashley Prizio opened the rally with an 8meter goal while Annie Kalata scored twice and assisted on another to help pull the Blackbirds within 12-8 at 6:31. SHU pushed their lead back to six with goals by Fuchs and Horelik before two LIU scores under a minute produced the 14-10 final.

Both Fuchs and Horelik finished with two goals a piece while freshman Aurelie Pluijmakers (Freehold, NJ) scored her first career goal in the win. Junior Chelsea Wagner (Aurora, CO) made seven saves in earning the win in the cage.

Sacred Heart returns to action on Sunday afternoon hosting Bryant University at 1:00 pm on Campus Field.

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Fairfield, Conn. – The Long Island University women's lacrosse team mounted an impressive second half comeback at Sacred Heart, but could not overcome an early five-goal deficit and fell, 14-10, on Friday afternoon at Campus Field. The Blackbirds outscored the Pioneers in the second half, but it was not enough after SHU opened the game with a 5-0 run. Junior Christie Wienckowski (Newton Square, Pa.) and sophomore Annie Kalata (Nesconset, N.Y.) led the LIU attack with three points each.

Long Island (2-6, 1-2 Northeast Conference) fell behind 5-0 before Wienckowski took a feed from junior Jillian Maricondo (Levittown, N.Y.) to get on the board. Senior Allison Funk (Lumberton, N.J.) scored her seventh goal of the year at the 11:28 mark to make it 5-2. The Pioneers responded however by scoring five unanswered goals to take a 10-2 lead at halftime.

Sacred Heart (4-5, 2-0 NEC) opened the second half with a pair of goals sandwiched around a score from freshman Ashley Prizio (Brookfield, Conn.) to make it 12-3 before LIU mounted its comeback. Wienckowski converted a setup from Funk to spark a 5-0 run for the Blackbirds and cut into the SHU lead.

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2009-03-27