Siena women collapse in second half against Johns Hopkins
LOUDONVILLE, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Through the first two-thirds of the women’s lacrosse game between Siena and the No. 14 ranked Johns Hopkins Blue Jays, it would have been difficult to tell which team was nationally ranked and which was not.
The Saints came out with plenty of gusto, looking prepared and ready for the challenge of facing a strong and experienced Blue Jays squad that was returning nearly all of its players from last season’s NCAA Sweet 16 run that ended against No. 2 Syracuse.
The game between Siena and Johns Hopkins remained tied until the Blue Jays’ Ava Angello scored with 4:19 left in the third quarter to take an 8-7 lead. It began a key 4-0 run by Hopkins as it pulled away from there for a 17-9 win over the Saints on a blustery Sunday afternoon at Hickey Field.
Johns Hopkins (2-0), who competes in the Big Ten Conference, was bringing back more than 96 percent (218 of 226) of its goals and more than 97 percent of its assists (118 of 121) on its roster. It was also coming off a 14-10 win on Friday at No. 21 UAlbany.
But, it was Siena (0-1), who were the aggressors early—scoring the first three goals of the game and led 4-2 at the end of the first quarter before playing to a 6-6 tie at halftime.
Junior attack Kelly Logue was especially effective, either assisting or scoring on the Saints’ first five goals that it tallied. The Rocky Point, NY native finished with a career-high four assists to go along with a pair of goals.
“Our players came out with a ton of confidence and are hungry to keep getting better,” said first-year Siena head coach Danielle Schwan-Tetreault.
“We are looking to build off a lot of learning moments from this game as we move into next week.”
While the Saints cut the lead to within 11-8 with 11:40 left to play on a Rebecca Gilhooley goal, JHU took control from there with six goals scored in roughly a five-minute stretch that was aided by three player-up goals.
Mikayla Cooke was whistled for a yellow card and Jordan Bentley was called for a pair of yellow cards to give Hopkins some extra opportunities to be a player up.
Ashley Mackin scored two of her game-high four goals during that stretch.
While Angello, who was the leading scorer with 53 points and 40 goals in 2023, added three goals including one of her goals during this time.
Saints junior attack Grace Dobrzynski inched closer toward reaching a new program milestone, totaling an assist—her 80th career assist— to move into a tie for the all-time assist queen mark with Nicole McNeely, who played from 2018 to 2022. Dobrzynski added a goal as well.
Senior Taryn Asselin and Gilhooley each scored twice while freshman Olivia Nicholson scored her first career goal.
Siena will be back on the field this Saturday when it hosts No. 15 Army West Point (0-1) at 1 p.m. The Black Knights lost to No. 17 USC 13-9 this past Friday.