Brooklyn, N.Y. - Led by sophomore Chrissy Gutenberger's five goals and three assists, the Manhattan College women's lacrosse team topped Long Island University 15-11 Tuesday afternoon at LIU. The Lady Jaspers got off to a fast start in the contest and never trailed.
In addition to Gutenberger's scoring exploits, Manhattan's Julia Lavelle tallied a hat trick and Caralyn Hickey, Tara Convery and Elizabeth Dugan chipped in with two goals each. Phelicia VanOverbeke added a goal. Hickey and Van Overbeke had two assists and Lavelle one. Manhattan (now 2-10) outshot LIU (now 3-11) by a large 51 to 29 margin.
Manhattan jumped out to a two-goal lead in the early going on scores by VanOverbeke and Convery in the opening 2:16. The Blackbirds cut the deficit in half with an unassisted goal by Annie Kalata, their leading scorer on the day with three, at 24:51. But that was as close as LIU would get the rest of the way. Gutenberger and Lavelle scored the next two Jaspers goals and also set each other's goals up to extend the lead to 4-1.
Long Island got back within two goals to make it 4-2, but Gutenberger answered with back-to-back goals within eight seconds of each other to make it 6-2 before LIU got a goal back. Gutenberger continued to cause headaches for the LIU defense by adding another goal and assist before halftime before LIU converted a free position shot to make it 8-4 at the intermission.
Manhattan continued to click offensively, scoring three goals in the opening five minutes of the second half to make it 10-4. LIU got a pair of goals back to make it 11-6 with 22:58 to play. Lavelle tacked on two goals for the Jaspers, which were sandwiched around an LIU score.
LIU mounted a late rally that started with consecutive goals by Kalata that made it 13-9 with 14:47 to play and then cut the deficit to three goals with 7:55 to play. But the Jaspers managed to put the game out of reach with goals from Dugan and Hickey before LIU was able to score for LIU with 39 seconds to play for the final margin.
Manhattan's goalkeeper Julia DiBernardo posted six saves and was aided on defense by Keri Morrison who caused three turnovers and Breana Leonard who caused two turnovers. Morrison also picked up six ground balls, while Dugan had four ground balls and Leonard and Ashley McHale three.
Manhattan's next game is against conference foe Marist University Friday at 7 p.m. in Poughkeepsie.