(Farmingdale, NY) - 14 minutes into Saturday's Skyline Conference Women's Lacrosse opener between Mount Saint Vincent and Farmingdale State, it appeared as if Mount Saint Vincent was experiencing a season on the brink. After a school-record four straight losses (by a combined 23 goals), including an 8-6 setback to powerhouse FDU-Florham on Thursday, Mount Saint Vincent allowed the first four goals of Saturday's game to undefeated Farmingdale State as the Rams easily built a lead, and appeared to be rolling. With the prospects of a fifth straight loss looming, Mount Saint Vincent turned what could have been a moment of despair into an afternoon of triumph, rallying to score eight of the game's final 10 goals and virtually shutting down the potent Farmingdale offense as the Mount scored an exciting 8-6 win over the Rams to improve to 2-4. More importantly, the Dolphins are 1-0 in Skyline Conference play and experienced the thrill of victory for the first time in three weeks.
Freshman goalie Nicole Fortier (East Lyme, CT/East Lyme HS) was the story. One of two blue-chip goalie recruits for the Mount this season, Fortier has waited patiently all season long as fellow rookie Jackie Horn (Setauket, NY/Ward Melville HS) has been stellar in net for the Mount during the first three weeks of the season. But on Saturday, Horn had a rough start as she failed to register a save during the game's first 13:30. After Farmingdale took the 4-0 lead, Fortier entered the game for her first action since an 18-10 loss to Gordon on March 12, and did not look the slightest bit rusty. The freshman settled down the Dolphin defense and stopped nine out of 11 shots the rest of the way during a spectacular performance.
As Fortier heated up, so did the Mount offense, as the Dolphins outshot 35-22 over the final 44 minutes of play, and finally started scoring as well. Sophomore Megan Fleri (Islip, NY/Islip HS) scored at 15:35 to make it 4-1, and three minutes later, junior Cyndi Adams (Mechanicsville, MD/Chopticon HS) scored off of a gorgeous pass by freshman Khrystina Jackson (West Islip, NY/West Islip HS) to cut the deficit in half. Junior Chanel Comis (Durham, NC/Cardinal Gibbons) and freshman Kelly Martin (North Rockland, NY/North Rockland HS) scored two minutes apart to tie the score 4-4, but a Farmingdale State goal a mere 15 seconds after the Dolphins tied things appeared to give the Rams a 5-4 lead at halftime. However, Jackson scored the first of her two goals with 18 seconds remaining in the first half to send the teams to the break tied at five.
Jackson put the Dolphins ahead with a free position goal three minutes into the second half to give the Mount its first lead of the game, and three minutes later, Martin scored her second to put the Dolphins up 7-5. After a Ram goal with 20 minutes to play made it 7-6, the Mount put the game away with 15:26 left in the game when a caused turnover by junior Michelle Yarger (Chantilly, VA/Chantilly HS) gave the Mount a fast break, and Yarger found Adams for a spectacular goal to put the Dolphins up by two once again. Yarger finished play with a game-high nine ground balls on Saturday.
Mount Saint Vincent maintained possession of the ball for nearly 14 straight minutes to end the game and improve to 3-0 all-time against Farmingdale State, one of the most improved teams this season in the Skyline Conference.
Jackson, Adams, and Martin each scored twice with Jackson tying her career high with three points. Yarger, along with juniors Alexis Alessi (Oceanside, NY/Oceanside HS), and Cynthia Osorio (Rockville Centre, NY/Oceanside HS) spearheaded a defensive effort that saw the Mount allow 10 goals or less for the fourth time during six games this season.
Mount Saint Vincent continues Skyline Conference play on Wednesday, April 4 when they host Manhattanville College at 6:00 p.m. at Wien Stadium on the campus of Columbia University. Manhattanville defeated the Mount, 12-11 in triple overtime a year ago.
