Women’s Lacrosse Stays Perfect, #1 in Country

Christian Arnold
Assistant Sports Editor

The women’s lacrosse team maintained its perfect record this week, defeat- ing the Dowling Golden

Lions 1613 on Wednesday, March 20, and the Bloomsburg Huskies 97 on Sunday, March 24.

The two victories move the Pioneers’ record to 70 on the season and 10 in conference play. They also remain ranked number one in NCAA Division II lacrosse.

Junior attacker Jackie Sileo set a new NCAA Division II ca- reer assists record in the win on Wednesday. The previous record was held by Adelphi’s Claire Peter- son, which was set in the 201011 season, and Sileo tied the record the game prior. She finished the game with six assists, along with four goals.

Sileo was the one who opened the scoring for the Pioneers against

the Golden Lions. She tallied her first goal of the afternoon at the 25:20 mark to tie the game at one. Dowling answered right back scor- ing two goals to jump in front 31.

But, the Pioneers scored four goals over the next five minutes to capture their first lead of the game. Junior attacker Morgan Chiarenza started the scoring at 15:22 of the first half. Less than a minute later Sileo scored her second goal of
the game, followed by goals from junior midfielder Katie Rotan and senior attacker/midfielder Abbie Ross.

Dowling added three more goals in the half, including one with three seconds left in the first, but Sileo and Ross tagteamed to score three goals for the Pioneers to go into halftime with an 86 lead.

Senior attacker/midfielder Ashley Olen made it 96 just min- utes into the second half before Golden Lions’ sophomore attacker

Jackie Andersen cut the LIU Post lead to two. Ross scored less than a minute later, however the Golden Lions went on a run over the fol- lowing three minutes and took the lead off a goal from Andersen at 17:18.

The game was tied two more times before the Pioneers captured the lead for good in the final 10 minutes of the game. Olen scored twice in less than a minute and Ross scored at 8:59 to put the Pioneers ahead 1512. The Golden Lions scored one more time, but junior midfielder Samantha Losco added the insurance goal with 4:01 left to play and secured the LIU Post win.

The Pioneers played another close game on Saturday against the Huskies. This time it was Chiaren- za who scored the game’s first goal. Olen tallied backtoback goals fol- lowed by scores from Sileo, Rotan and another by Olen. Sophomore midfielder Julie Falk scored the

Huskies’ first goal of the game at the 11:06 mark of the first. Losco pushed the Pioneers lead back to six with a goal at 9:22. Bloomsburg added two more goals before the half ended and LIU Post notched one more with three seconds left in the first to go into halftime with an 83 lead.

Falk scored two goals at 19:36 and 18:47 of the second half to move within three points of the Pioneers.

Sophomore midfielder/de- fender Morgan Sherriff scored at 11:36 to make it a three point LIU Post lead and sophomore attacker Patrice Coleman scored with less than five minutes left to play in the game. But the Pioneers would hold the Huskies at bay and come away with the 97 victory.

The Pioneers have a week and a half off before their next con- test on April 3 when they travel to Dobbs Ferry, New York to battle the Mercy College Mavericks.