April 3, 2011

Box Score

BALTIMORE, MD - The visiting Vanderbilt Commodores outscored Johns Hopkins, 7-4, in the second half to rally from a 9-7 deficit for a 14-13 win at Homewood Field in American Lacrosse Conference action Sunday afternoon. The Blue Jays have their three-game win streak snapped in the loss and fall to 7-4 overall and 0-1 in the ALC. The Commodores meanwhile, improve to 7-5 and 1-2 in the conference.

Hopkins led 10-7 less than three minutes into the second half after junior Rachel Ballatori one-timed a pass from classmate Alyssa Kildare past Chelsea Pasfield. But the Commodores won the ensuing draw and Emily Franke scored off a feed from Courtney Kirk just 57 seconds later to ignited a 4-1 run that would tie the game at 11-11 with 13:19 on the clock. Junior Candace Rossi answered Franke's goal with her fifth of the day at 19:41 to push Hopkins' lead to 11-8 at 19:41. Midway through the half however, Vanderbilt would string together three straight goals in a span of less than two minutes to even things up at 11 all.

Senior Brooke Foussadier completed her hat trick with 12:32 to play on a free position goal that put Hopkins back on top 12-11. The Commodores once again answered with three straight, including a pair just 59 seconds apart from Katherine Denkler, that saw Vanderbilt take a 14-12 lead with 7:38 remaining. Sophomore Katie Duffey cut the deficit to one just three minutes later, when she tipped a loose ball in the slot past Pasfield. Vanderbilt won the ensuing draw and was able to kill off more than two minutes before sophomore Sammi Arbitman forced a turnover on Ally Carey.

Hopkins cleared successfully and called a timeout to set up its offense. But an offensive foul called on junior Colleen McCaffrey gave the ball back to Vanderbilt with 1:18 to play. Vanderbilt would kill over just over a minute before turning the ball over again, however Hopkins was not able to get the ball into the offensive end before the final horn.

Vanderbilt came out firing to open the game, scoring three of the first four goals to take a 3-1 lead with just over five minutes gone. Hopkins finally got its offense going scoring seven of the next eight goals to push out to an 8-4 lead. Foussadier got things going, taking a goal line extended pass from freshman Taylor D'Amore and firing it home to cut the deficit to one with 21:18 to play. Rossi followed that with a pair of identical goals, rolling inside her defender along the crease, and scoring from in tight. Denkler temporarily halted the run, scoring on a dodge thru traffic to tie the game at 4-4.

Less than two minutes later, Rossi had completed her hat trick and put Hopkins back on top. Foussadier, D'Amore and freshman Sarah Taylor all followed with goals to stake the Blue Jays to an 8-4 lead with 7:15 to play in the half. Vanderbilt would close the half however on a 3-1 run with goals from three different players as Hopkins took a 9-7 lead into the half.

Rossi led all scorers with a career-high-tying five goals, her sixth career five-goal outing. Foussadier added a hat trick, while D'Amore had two goals and two assists. Kirk tallied a team-high five points on three goals and two assists for the Commodores, while Denkler and Franke also added hat tricks.

Hopkins returns to action on Saturday, April 9 as the Blue Jays travel to Gainesville, FL to take on the sixth-ranked Florida Gators. Opening draw for the ALC game is slated for 1:00 pm at Dizney Stadium.