Lacrosse Rolls Past Quinnipiac, 17-4

STORRS, Conn. (March 16, 2005) – Tracy Mullaney scored four goals, and added an assist, all in the first half, as the University of Connecticut women’s lacrosse team defeated Quinnipiac, 17-4, on Wednesday afternoon at the George J. Sherman-Family Sports Complex in Storrs. The Huskies improve to 4-0 with the victory, the second best start in school history, and the best since opening the 2000 season on a 5-0 run. The Bobcats dip to 0-4. UConn is now 6-3 all-time in its home openers, having won each of the last four.

Quinnipiac struck first as Melissa Jordan scored 2:37 into the game off of Jennifer Larson’s feed. UConn tallied the next two goals to go up 3-1 as Jacqui Hamilton converted on Tanya Kotowicz’s feed and Mullaney twice split the Bobcat defense for unassisted tallies. Jordan scored again at 12:45, with an assist from Danielle Mormile, to cut the UConn lead to 3-2, but the Huskies would tally the next five goals to wrestle away control of the contest. Shannon Burke continued her hot early-season play by netting a pair of goals during the run, while Mullaney, Kristen Link and Dana Stewart also found the back of the net before Christy Smallman broke the Quinnipiac skid with an unassisted goal at 27:42. Mullaney scored her fourth goal of the opening stanza, from Heather McHugh, with 25 seconds to go before halftime, giving the Huskies a 9-3 edge.

Six different Huskies would score in the second half, one in which UConn outscored its visitors from Hamden by an 8-1 margin. In all, 11 different Huskies scored in the game, just one shy of the school record of 12 different goal scorers in a single contest. Kotowicz and Laura Trzasko scored for the third and second times this year, respectively, to give UConn an 11-3 lead at 37:39 before Smallman converted on a free position shot for Quinnipiac. UConn scored each of the game’s final six goals, four of them on free position shots, to account for the 17-4 final. Three of those goals came compliments of Tammy Michel who recorded her third career hat trick on Wednesday. Pointless through three games in 2005, Michael also added an assist, factoring in four of the final six Husky goals. Also during that run, sophomore Kristina Harvey scored the first goal of her career on a free position, while senior Kate Wadach netted just the second score of her career and her first since 2003. Allison Tyminski also scored for UConn. Tyminski’s goal was the junior’s second of the year, equalling the sum of her freshman and sophomore seasons combined.

Jennifer Wong played the first 45 minutes in net for UConn, yielding all four Bobcat goals while making four saves. Kristen Haldeman later made one save in 15 shutout minutes of play.

UConn returns to action on Saturday, March 19 when the Huskies play host to Towson at 1:00 p.m. at the Sherman-Family Sports Complex.

Connecticut 17, Quinnipiac 4
Quinnipiac    3 1 -- 4 (0-4)
Connecticut 9 8 -- 17 (4-0)
SCORING SUMMARY: FIRST HALF: QU, Melissa Jordan (Jennifer Larson) 2:37; UC, Jacqui Hamilton (Tanya Kotowicz) 5:36; UC, Tracy Mullaney 8:42; UC, Mullaney 10:24; QU, Jordan (Danielle Mormile) 12:45; UC, Dana Stewart (Heather McHugh) 16:42; UC, Shannon Burke 17:13; UC, Mullaney (free position) 21:39; UC, Burke 24:33; UC, Kristen Link (Mullaney) 25:32; QU, Christy Smallman 27:42; UC, Mullaney (McHugh) 29:25. SECOND HALF: UC, Tanya Kotowicz 36:43; UC, Laura Trzasko (Stewart) 37:39; QU; Smallman 41:18; UC, Tammy Michel (free position) 42:18; UC, Kristina Harvey (free position) 43:27; UC, Kate Wadach 45:32; UC, Allison Tyminski (Michel) 49:42; UC, Michel (Robyn Pastuch) 50:48; UC, Michel (free position) 58:30.
CONNECTICUT GOALS: Tracy Mullaney (4), Tammy Michel (3), Shannon Burke (2), Jacqui Hamilton, Kristina Harvey, Tanya Kotowicz, Kristen Link, Dana Stewart, Laura Trzasko, Allison Tyminski, Kate Wadach.
CONNECTICUT ASSISTS: Heather McHugh (2), Tanya Kotowicz, Tammy Michel, Tracy Mullaney, Robyn Pastuch, Dana Stewart.
QUINNIPIAC GOALS: Melissa Jordan (2), Christy Smallman (2).
QUINNIPIAC ASSISTS: Danielle Mormile, Jennifer Larson.