The Red Foxes lost to the Hofstra Pride in a running-clock 18-5 fashion, their second-straight loss of ten or more points.
The Marist’s women’s lacrosse team finished their out-of-conference road trip against Hofstra, who started their 2025 campaign 2-0 with strong victories, which they continued against Marist.
Struggling on both ends, Marist failed to defend Hofstra’s strong inside passing and lost multiple possessions on offense. They did not lose the turnover battle by a large margin–17 to 15–but they had costly ones that led to multiple scores.
Ultimately, the Foxes were undone in every major statistic by Hofstra.
For the Pride, redshirt sophomore Nikki Mennella headlined the dominant offensive attack, acquiring nine total points with six assists, nearly tying the single-game Hofstra point record of 10, set in 2021. The Pride had three separate players earn hat tricks.
Junior goalkeeper Luchiana Cardello put on a clinic, only allowing four goals to four saves, highlighting the stout defensive unit that gave Marist troubles.
The Pride struck quickly, with senior midfielder Megan Flannery opening up scoring, which was followed forty seconds later when graduate student Angelina Sparacio netted her fifth goal of the young season to push the lead to 2-0.
Redshirt sophomore Nikki Mennella extended it to 4-0 on a free-position goal, her fifth score of the season. Flannery also started the second period off with a high shot over sophomore goalkeeper Megan Morris, her second of the contest and putting the Lions up 5-0.
Mennella delivered a strike on a free-position goal, facing no pressure from the Marist defense as the lead only continued to spiral out of control, 6-0.
Sparacio bounced one off the ground to give her a hat trick not even midway through the second period. Mennella recorded her third assist to give her an early five-point game. Morris still had not recorded a save with seven goals allowed.
After senior defender Julia Palumbo picked up a yellow card, the Pride immediately struck on the player-up opportunity with a goal from freshman midfielder Kate Lemery to balloon the lead to 8-0. Mennella continued to make her presence felt with her fourth assist.
Freshman attacker Kayleigh Bender added another on a free-position goal, which was shortly followed by junior attacker Julia Harris sneaking one in on a cut. The Pride had already forced the running-clock rule with five minutes to go in the second quarter as they put up their tenth score of the half, 10-0.
The constant cutting of the Pride was a staple of their offensive attack. Mannella routinely found the wide-open cutters, who then had easy up-close shots that more often than not turned into scores.
Junior midfielder Caitlin McNaboe finally got a shot by Cardello to break the running-clock rule and put the Foxes on the board, 10-1.
Sophomore midfielder Anne Shine rifled a straight shot past Cardello on a free position to add another score for the Foxes as they began to find some rhythm on offense.Lemery cut the Foxes’ run short with another inside feed from Mannella, her fifth assist, pushing the deficit to 11-2.
Mannella could not stop shredding the Marist defense with her passing, delivering another pretty feed to junior attacker Madeline Rudolph to revive the running-clock rule at half, 12-2. Mannella tallied eight points in the half.
The game slowed down in the second half, as both teams became aware of the outcome and subbed in reserves.
Flannery added her third goal to give her a hat trick as the Pride struck first, 13-2.
Sometime later, Mannella earned her well-deserved hat trick to put the Pride up twelve, 15-3. After some more exchange between the teams, a bow was put on the game as Hofstra took the breakaway victory, 18-5.
The Foxes will play their home opener on Wednesday, Feb. 19, at 1 p.m. against another tough non-conference opponent in the Army Black Knights.
Edited by Dan Aulbach
Graphic from Quinn Difiore
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