Women's Lacrosse 4/19/2025 1:51:00 PM

Saint Francis Women's Lacrosse Clipped In Overtime Heartbreaker At LIU, 11-10

BOX SCORE WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
>> Playing in its first overtime game since 2014 and first-ever on the road, Saint Francis lost on a free-position goal by LIU with 1:09 left in overtime in Northeast Conference (NEC) women's lacrosse action on Saturday.
>> Victoria DiRenno, who eclipsed 100 draw controls for her career in the game, won the draw in overtime, and Julia Givens had her shot go wide with 1:35 on the clock. Saint Francis got the ball out of bounds, but a turnover allowed the Sharks to take it on their offensive end to score the decisive goal.
>> Givens finished the game with a career-high six goals, including tying the game to send it to overtime with 15 seconds left.
>> Brooke Lacey added two goals and an assist, while Christina Roncarati found the twine twice, and Samantha Hewitt dished out two assists.
>> Taylor Coughlin made nine saves to reach 300 saves in her career.

TURNING POINTS OF THE GAME
Lacey scored off a Hewitt assist at 12:01, and Givens twinkled the twine off a feed from Heather Delbone with 11:12 remaining in the fourth quarter to give the Red Flash its largest lead at 9-7.

LIU then scored the next three tallies to take its first lead with 2:15 on the clock. The Sharks got the ball back after a yellow card on Saint Francis, and Coughlin came up with the huge save with 93 seconds left to give the Red Flash a chance to tie the match. Givens had her first scoring chance sail wide before she took a pass from Hewitt with 15 ticks left to square the match at 10. The Sharks then won in overtime after a Saint Francis turnover.

Stonehill defeated Le Moyne 9-8 on Saturday to set up a winners-take-all showdown with Saint Francis and Le Moyne on April 26 in Syracuse. The Red Flash is 4-4 and the Dolphins are 3-5 in NEC play going into the final regular season game.

FLASH MOMENTS
The Red Flash never trailed in the game until 2:15 left in the fourth quarter.

Givens gave Saint Francis a 1-0 lead at 13:42 in the first quarter before Roncarati handed the team a 2-1 lead at 7:17 and a 3-2 edge at 5:02 on a free-position tally.

Givens scored back-to-back markers at 9:33 and 8:44, with the second coming off a pass from DiRenno at 8:44 for a 5-3 advantage in the second quarter, but the Sharks came back to send the game tied at 5 after 30 minutes of play.

Lacey scored at 11:19 in the third quarter and then set up Givens with 44 seconds left to give Saint Francis a 7-6 margin going into the final frame.

FLASH NUGGETS
Givens registered her first six-goal performance, which marks the second most goals scored in a game this season after Lacey had seven markers in a win against Duquesne earlier this season. It is the second time in her career she has scored at least five times in a game after posting five goals against Stonehill on April 1, 2023. The game against the Skyhawks was the last time she had six points.

It was the ninth time Lacey has scored at least two goals in a match this season and the eighth time she has posted at least three points. The junior leads the team with 31 goals and 10 assists for 41 points.

DiRenno finished with 10 draw controls to mark the second time she posted double-digit draws this season. The senior had 12 draw controls against FDU on April 5, the second most in the program's single-game history, while the 10 on Saturday sit seventh and the ninth time a player has finished with exactly 10 draw controls. A Red Flash player has scooped up double-figure draws 16 times, but DiRenno is the second player to turn the trick more than once (Emileigh Scott, nine times). The senior is the eighth player in team history to reach 100 draws in her career and has 104 for her career. She has 72 draws in 2025, the fifth most in single-season history.

Coughlin's nine saves gave her 302 in her career to become the sixth netminder in program history to reach that total.

Elizabeth Garcia registered two ground balls to move into third place on the single-game list with 48. The NEC Defensive Player of the Week recorded two caused turnovers to increase her single-season program record to 33 caused miscues.

Chyler Espino moved into fifth place on the career ground ball list with 106.

Hewitt, the current NEC Rookie of the Week, jumped into fifth place for points as a freshman with 38 points.

It was the fifth time Saint Francis had played an overtime game and first since defeating LIU 10-9 in double overtime on April 4, 2014. The Red Flash also defeated Wagner (13-12, March 19, 2010) and CCSU (18-17, April 3, 2011). It was the second time the squad lost an overtime match and first since falling 20-19 against Saint Mary's (Calif.) on April 8, 2009. The previous four extra session games all took place in Loretto.

The loss ended a season-long three-game winning streak.