The No. 7 Indiana University (Pa.) lacrosse team (9-2, 7-0 PSAC) reaffirmed their position in the national rankings by defeating Slippery Rock (4-7, 1-5 PSAC) by a score of 15-6.
“I think we started to get a little tired and that led to us making a few more mistakes than we did at the beginning of the game,” junior attacker Paige Costatino said. “If we play smarter and not make ourselves run back and forth we’ll be more successful.”
IUP took an early lead on Tuesday night, scoring four minutes into the match and never trailing against the Rock.
Costatino tied the game up with 18 minutes remaining in the half, but from there on the Crimson Hawks scoring would be too much for SRU.
The Crimson Hawks went on to score eight more goals in the half and SRU could only tally two more goals, both by senior attacker Morgan Pettit.
“We couldn’t capitalize on our goalies saves that were rebounds and knock down any potential turnovers,” SRU head coach Emily Hopkins said. “Offensively we were holding the ball a little too long and panicked a little under the pressure.”
IUP snagged the first goal of the second half, reminding SRU that they were not going to relax with the lead.
SRU answered back with a goal from Costatino followed by another three goal run by the Crimson Hawks.
Pettit got her third goal of the game for SRU in the 15th minute of the second half, sophomore midfielder Erin Wilcox got the final goal for the Rock in the 16th minute.
IUP went on to score the final two goals of the game, which brought the final score to 15-6 in favor of the Crimson Hawks.
“We hope to improve our time of possession and winning the draw,” Costatino said. “I think our clears off of saves have been really great lately, (sophomore goalkeeper) Jordan (Wagner) has been doing a great job in net for us so we want to continue to be successful.
The Crimson Hawks finished the game with a 43-18 advantage in shots, 30-23 in ground balls and 14-9 draw controls.
Pettit, with her three goals, needs only eight more to have 100 in her career at SRU.
Costatino had two goals and one assist, Wilcox had one goal.
Junior attacker Jess Verbic and sophomore midfielder Kaytlin Callaghan each finished the game with one assist.
Wagner made 15 saves in the game.
Sophomore midfielder Drew Hayden led IUP with eight points off of seven goals and one assist. Freshman midfielder Kim Hooven scored four goals for the Crimson Hawks. Sophomore midfielder Brittney Palardy and sophomore attacker Amy Weinberg contributed one goal and two assists each in the victory.
With only six games remaining this season, SRU looks to make a push for the PSAC playoffs.
“We need to capitalize on other teams mistakes and play hard for 60 minutes,” Hopkins said. “We need to trust ourselves under pressure.”
Slippery Rock will visit the Warriors of East Stroudsburg University (6-5, 1-5 PSAC) on Saturday for the first of Slippery Rock’s final six games.
The match is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m.
