Fantigrossi sparks Sharks to first NEC Championship appearance with five goals

Smith posted her tenth double-digit save total of the season this afternoon (PHOTO BY Greg Vasile/NEC)

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (May 2, 2024) – Second-seeded Long Island University held fourth-seeded Stonehill College in check for two full quarters to pull away and advance with a 14-7 triumph in semifinal round action of the 2024 Northeast Conference Tournament, hosted by top-seeded Sacred Heart University, at Campus Field this afternoon.

LIU (10-7, 9-1 NEC) advances to the NEC Championship game for the first time in program history and will face top-seeded and host Sacred Heart (11-5, 9-1 NEC) at Campus Field on Saturday at 1 p.m. The Pioneers advanced to their second-straight NEC Championship game by slipping past upset-minded and sixth-seeded Wagner College (6-11, 5-5 NEC) 11-10 in today's first semifinal. Stonehill sees its second Division I season close with a 9-9 record overall, including 7-3 in the NEC to earn its first NEC Tournament appearance in its first season of eligibility on its way to the semifinal round appearance.

Senior Olivia Fantigrossi paced the LIU attack with five goals, three ground balls and a game-high three caused turnovers as the Pioneers took advantage of 16 Stonehill turnovers on the day to aid in keeping the NEC's highest scoring attack in check, while sophomore Erin Harkins contributed three goals and an assist for four points. Junior Ava Taylor contributed two goals for the Pioneers and senior Rachel Weber totaled three points with a goal and two assists.

Junior Mylie Norton stymied the Stonehill attack with seven saves in the LIU goal, while sophomore Julia Trainor collected six draw controls, three ground balls and two caused turnovers.

Sophomore Grace Murphy scored six of Stonehill's seven goals in the contest to match her career best. Senior Claire Smith posted her tenth double-figure save total of the season, finishing with ten for the afternoon, while classmate Lilly Leach collected a game-high eight draw controls.

Murphy celebrates one of her career-high matching six goals for the Skyhawks this afternoon (PHOTO BY Greg Vasile/NEC)

How it Happened

• Stonehill held the lead twice in the opening ten minutes of the contest, with Murphy and senior Molly Mae Hughes following up LIU's opening goal from senior Jen Gaffney two and a half minutes into the game.
• Murphy's first goal of the game was just 15-seconds after Gaffney's opener before Hughes scored off a feed from junior Sofia D'Agostino in a woman-up situation with 8:28 remaining in the first quarter.
• Taylor's first of the afternoon knotted the score for LIU with 6:34 left in the first, but Murphy again offered a quick answer that pushed Stonehill back in front 15-seconds later.
• LIU would not yield a goal for the next 40-plus minutes, holding Stonehill scoreless over the entirety of the second and third quarters, as it embarked on a game-deciding 12-0 run that opened a 14-3 lead after sophomore Lindsay Lucia scored 66-seconds into the fourth quarter.
• The Sharks closed out the first quarter with three-straight goals from three different players to grab a 5-3 edge after the opening frame, capped by Taylor's second goal of the game with nine-seconds left.
• Fantigrossi scored two of LIU's three second quarter goals to give the Sharks a five-goal cushion (8-3) at halftime and then scored the first three goals of the second half that extended the lead to eight markers (11-3) less than six minutes into the third quarter.
• Harkins added a pair of goals in the closing 5:19 of the third with her second coming as time expired to push the Sharks lead to ten (13-3) heading to the fourth.
• Stonehill would not go down without a fight as Murphy followed Lucia's fourth quarter tally with four-straight goals to close out the scoring in the contest in the final 11-minutes.

Noteworthy

• Murphy posted her 14^th multi-goal game of the season this afternoon with her ninth game with four-plus markers, taking over the NEC goal-scoring lead from Hughes with 57 this season – falling seven shy of the Conference's all-time single-season record of 64 by Mount Saint Mary University's Katelyn Catanese in 2008.
• Hughes finished her senior season as the NEC leader with 84 points, while her 56 goals are second only to Murphy, and Hughes' 28 assists are second among Conference leaders to sophomore teammate Natalie Coutu's 37.
• Hughes caps her outstanding collegiate career that saw her named the NEC Offensive Player of the Year and awarded with Stonehill's Fr. William Gartland, C.S.C., Female Senior Student-Athlete of the Year Award, ranked ninth all-time in program history with 231 points and 82 assists, while ranked tenth with 159 goals in 64 games.
• Leach, a three-time All-Conference performer and two-time All-NEC first team selection that was named the NEC Midfielder of the Year, saw her career close with a program-record 327 draw controls, including an NEC-leading 139 this year that ranks third on Stonehill's single-season list, also totaling 111 goals and 16 assists for 127 points in 56 career games.
• In addition to Leach breaking Stonehill's career draw control record and moving up to third on the single-season list, Stonehill's NEC-high 277 draws as a team is the seventh-highest single-season total in program history.
• Smith's ten saves give her 167 to finish third on Stonehill's all-time single-season list, while her 247 saves in 34 career games played is ranked seventh in program history.

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