The Marist women’s lacrosse team returned to Poughkeepsie and was welcomed with a grueling 16-6 loss to the West Point Black Knights.
Coming off a blowout 18-5 loss to Hofstra, the Red Foxes (0-3) were seeking their first win of the season in a more comfortable environment at Tenney Stadium.
Instead, the Black Knights (2-0) came to Poughkeepsie and showed why they are one of the top 50 teams in the country.
Junior midfield captain Brigid Duffy took control of the first draw control, which transitioned down West Point’s offensive half; within 18 seconds of the starting whistle, Army scored the game’s first goal.
The Marist defense struggled with man-to-man allowing Army attackers to cut down the eight-meter, opening up space on the shooting perimeter. Army’s offense accumulated 23 shots in the first half alone.
“Army is a good group. When they isolate people, they have tremendous talent in certain spaces. So when that happens we have to send things a little bit earlier and spaces will start to open up,” said Marist head coach Keith Detelj.
Marist fought to break down the Black Knights’ strong contain defense within the critical scoring area but were unsuccessful; ending the game with 17 shots.
West Point’s second goal came from a man-up attack with junior attacker Allison Reilly finding midfielder Gabrielle Mirak just outside the crease for Army.
Sophomore MAAC-Rookie of the Year goalie, Megan Morris, proved to Army early that she is a force in the crease with two back-to-back saves and a shot that was sent wide.
“Meg did a tremendous job of making some saves in those moments, we are really really excited to see her kind of finding the ball a little bit more than she did last year,” said Detelj.
With ten minutes left in the first period, midfield Ryan Remaly found Duffy cutting inside the eight alone pushing Army’s lead to three.
The Red Foxes started the second period down five, unable to penetrate the Black Knights’ defense.
Army opened up the second period with a goal almost immediately, winning draw control and finding junior attack Chloe Garret open for the goal.
The Black Knights continued their dominant defensive and offensive attack while the Red Foxes continued struggling on both sides of the field.
With 11 minutes remaining in the half, Marist finally got on the board from sophomore attack Kate Gaven off a pass from junior midfielder Jesse Manger.
“[West Point] did a tremendous job of making us feel uncomfortable, and I think that is a learning process for our younger group, to find the openings that we need. We had open shots at times and we need to really bury them and that’s what we said is the finishing product that let us down today,” said Detelj.
With six minutes remaining in the second, Duffy broke the West Point all-time points leader record in Army women’s lacrosse history with 182 points.
West Point outscored Marist 5-2 in the second period, leaving Marist with a 9-2 deficit.
Marist took control of the first possession but could not make anything of it.
The Marist defense continued allowing the Army to cut and draw defenders which created space in the shooting zone, leaving Morris in constant one-on-one situations.
Morris remained as strong as she could, ending the game with eight saves despite the defense handing Army countless opportunities.
Chloe Birkhead scores the Red Foxes’ first goal of the fourth with 11 minutes left in play making the score 13-4. 10 seconds later, Duffy secured her hat trick, widening West Point’s lead back to 10. Both teams added two more goals for a 16-6 final.
The Red Foxes continue their non-conference schedule in Burlington, Vermont on Sunday, February 23 at 11.
Edited by: Aidan Lavin
Photo: John Jankowski; Graphic: Kira Crutcher
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