Nashville, TN (March 18) - The 16th-ranked Vanderbilt Women's Lacrosse team jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first half and held on for a 12-7 win over Hofstra on Sunday afternoon.

Hofstra, which flew in to Nashville on Sunday morning due to travel problems caused by the winter storm in the Northeast on Saturday, falls to 2-3 on the season with the loss. Vanderbilt, meanwhile, improves to 4-3 overall with the win.

Jennifer Tapscott scored right off the opening draw control to give the Commodores a quick 1-0 lead, then fed Margie Curran for a goal at the 29:18 mark to make the score 2-0. Sarah Downing then scored two goals around a single goal from Kendall Thrift to stretch the lead to 5-0 with 7:05 left in the half.

Senior attack Becky Thorn (Holbrook, NY/Sachem) broke the Hofstra drought with an unassisted goal with 3:06 left in the half to make the score 5-1 heading into the locker room. However, Curran and Tapscott scored goals in the first 3:15 of the second half to stretch the lead to 7-1 and prevent the Pride from building any momentum. Vanderbilt stretched its lead up to as much as eight at 11-3, before settling for the 12-7 win.

Thorn had three goals for the Pride, while scoring on all three of her shot attempts, while senior midfielder Casey McGrath (Kings Park, NY/Kings Park) also had three goals and senior attack Kimberly Hillier (Farmingdale, NY/Farmingdale) added one.

Five different players scored two goals for the Commodores, which held a 32-20 edge in shot attempts for the game. Hofstra received 10 saves from junior goalie Maisie Osteen (Charlottesville, VA/Charlottesville), while Brooke Shinaberry had seven saves in goal for Vanderbilt.

Hofstra will next be in action when it travels to Rutgers on Wednesday for a 4:00 p.m. contest.

2007-03-18