Pride loses to Rutgers, 15-7

Hofstra women's lacrosse coach Abby Morgan thought her team was ready for its key non-conference game against Rutgers Saturday.

It turned out to be the opposite as the Pride struggled to crack Rutgers' defense in a 15-7 loss at Shuart Stadium. Anytime Hofstra's attackers got close there seemed to be a wall of defenders waiting.

"That was something that we were prepared for, but we didn't execute very well," Morgan said. "We knew the sides were going to be coming quickly to our bigger goal scorers, our bigger drivers and we had a lot of people kind of standing around on the outside instead of going through and making those cuts."

Hofstra struggled offensively and trailed 6-2 at halftime. By the time the Pride found its way inside the Rutgers defense it was too late. "We weren't tough," Morgan said. "That was a piece that we really needed to do better. We weren't tough enough getting into that middle."

Pride midfielder Maryann Miller agreed. "When we came out we were hustling, but we got outhustled," Miller said. "There were spells. We had highs and we had lows. We just needed a full 60 minutes . . . from everybody."

Miller led Hofstra with three goals -- all in the second half -- and Brittain Altomare added a goal and an assist.

Ali Steinberg had four goals and Shoreham-Wading River graduate Stephanie Anderson added two goals and two assists for the Scarlet Knights (2-3).

Rutgers took a 7-2 lead with 25:37 left in the second half on an unassisted goal by Steinberg. Hofstra answered with goals from Claire Brady and Lindsay McKinnon to make it 7-4. Rutgers committed a foul on its ensuing possession, but right after that the Pride (2-4) was whistled for a false start on a free position play. It was a momentum-changing play as Rutgers scored five straight over the next 10 minutes for a 12-4 lead.

"I definitely had another view, but those are the uncontrollable pieces of any game," Morgan said. "In any athletic contest, you can't control what happens from the officials, from the fans or anything like that. So we needed to fight back."