April 20, 2012
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – Redshirt senior goalkeeper Sarah Geary became the school’s all-time leader in career saves on Friday afternoon as the Old Dominion University women’s lacrosse team fell to Hofstra, 9-8, at James M. Shuart Stadium.
It was a bittersweet afternoon for Old Dominion (4-12, 1-5), who was officially eliminated from CAA Tournament contention with the loss to Hofstra (5-10, 4-2). After failing to score for nearly 20 minutes in the second half and down by as many as five goals, ODU closed to within a goal with under 90 seconds to go but just wasn’t able to find the equalizer in the late rally.
Geary, a four-year starter in goal for the Lady Monarchs, passed Angie Stead as the career leader. Stead, who was in goal for ODU from 1996-1998 tallied 556 career saves. After Friday’s game, Geary has now tallied 558 career saves. “It means a lot and feels great to get this honor,” said Geary after the game. “I couldn’t have accomplished it without the help of my teammates though.”
“It is a well deserved accomplishment. She is so good around the crease and has made so many great saves over the year,” said interim head coach Heather Holt on Geary’s accomplishment after the game. “Today was a tough game for us but hopefully it was a learning experience for our younger players. We still have one more game to go so hopefully our seniors can come out strong and go out with a solid performance on Sunday.”
The Lady Monarchs got off to a strong start as senior midfielder Alyssa Dragon scored less than a minute into the contest for her first goal of the season on a feed from senior midfielder Lisa Bernardini. The Pride would then score the next four goals in the game over a 20-minute span behind a pair of goals from Jenn Ward to take a 4-1 advantage. ODU would score two of the final three goals in the half to pull within two goals at halftime at 5-3 after Bernardini scored for the 15th time in 16 games this season and senior midfielder Sarah Wright found the back of the net on a free position attempt.
The Pride, who clinched a spot in the CAA Tournament next weekend with the victory, scored the first three goals of the second half while holding ODU scoreless for nearly the first 20 minutes after the half. Senior midfielder Rebecca Hartrum was able to break up the Pride streak on a feed from Bernardini with just over 10 minutes to play. Junior midfielder Jordynn Collins then scored immediately after the Lady Monarchs won the draw on a feed from junior midfielder Meredith Rogers.
After a Pride goal, ODU would again get back-to-back goals as Collins scored her second goal of the game for ODU and Bernardini added her third assist. After winning the draw, Bernardini raced down the field and scored her second of the game with 2:30 left to play. A minute later, Bernardini scored for the third time to close the gap to 9-8. After the Pride won the draw, ODU got a turnover and had a pair of free position attempts with under a minute to go but couldn’t find the equalizer as time expired.
Bernardini led the Monarch attack with three goals and three assists while Collins scored twice. Geary had seven saves in the first half and 10 for the game. Ward scored three times and April Ianetta scored twice and picked up an assist to lead Hofstra. Pride goalie Jaclyn Pandolk racked up 12 saves and six groundballs.
Old Dominion wraps up the regular season on Sunday at 2 p.m. in Philadelphia when they take on Drexel at Vidas Field. Live stats will live stats will be available and updates throughout the game can also be found on Twitter at @ODULacrosse.