Stevenson women’s lacrosse has been on a tear since their season began 0-3. Since that tough start, the ‘Stangs have found their stride, going 8-1 and currently sitting undefeated in Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) play. Their most recent victory, 18-8 over the Hood College Blazers, stretched Stevenson’s win string to six.
“This stretch has been so important for us in terms of chemistry and confidence,” said senior attacker Kara Yarusso. “The losses in the beginning were against high-ranked schools and we learned a lot coming out of those games. The games after that we focused on improving and getting to know each other’s tendencies and things are finally starting to fully click.”
Stevenson’s returners were looking to avenge their loss to the Blazers last season, and they did so in dominant fashion.
“This was a huge win in general for conference play but especially for a lot of the returners coming back to get a win,” Yarusso said. “Last year was not us and that loss does not reflect our program, so we really went out there and proved that we are a good team and got a huge win to reflect that.”
In Wednesday’s state-rival showdown with Hood, the Mustangs outshot the Blazers 41-19.
Yarusso led the team with 7 points from 6 goals and an assist. Five other Mustangs contributed multiple-point games.
First-year Ava Treakle had 4 goals, senior Bailey Krahl had 2 goals and 3 assists, and junior Kellyann Coccia added 2 goals and an assist. Graduate students Sophia Murray and Erin Steinberg were the other prolific ‘Stangs.
Steinberg’s 3 points pushed her past 100 total for her career.
“Erin is so deserving of every single point that she has gotten, and I am so proud of her,” Yarusso said. “She works so hard and has an extremely high IQ, and has just been absolutely so much fun to play with. I’m so happy for her.”
Stevenson jumped to 4-0 first-quarter lead thanks to Krahl, Yarusso, Steinberg and Treakle.
Hood closed to 5-3 near halftime, but a 4-0 Stevenson run — two goals to end the first half and two to open the second — put the Mustangs up 9-3. Treakle scored two of the goals during this run. Yarusso and Coccia scored the others.
Stevenson’s final run was a 5-0 stretch to close the third quarter with a 14-4 lead. Yarusso notched two, while Coccia, Krahl and Murray all scored one each during the run. Hood couldn’t close the gap to fewer than eight the rest of the game.
Stevenson (8-4, 2-0 in MAC) travel to Alvernia today, April 13 for a 1 p.m. game.
“In terms of preparing for Alvernia, we are scouting like we do for every team we play in order to see tendencies and know what we are going into,” Yarusso said. “We are looking to keep this win streak going so we are focused and hard every day we go out there and play whether it is a practice or game.”
