Despite a strong opening 10 minutes of the game, the Maritime College women's lacrosse team couldn't keep up with the undefeated defending conference champions, USMMA, as they fell at home 16-3 on Saturday afternoon. 

The game started out hot for the Privateers as Sara Wright (East Islip, N.Y./East Islip), the new program record holder for draw controls, won the first four draw controls of the game and helped Maritime jump out to a 2-1 lead 10 minutes into action. 

The first goal of the game came just within the first minute as Krista Deleva (Sound Beach, N.Y./Miller Place) found Catherine Pfundstein (Deer Park, N.Y./Deer Park) cutting towards the goal. Pfundstein beat the goalie and scored her 40th goal of the season. After the Mariners evened the score at 1-1, it was Deleva once again facilitating the offense as she found Rachel Peterson (Latham, NY/Albany Academy), who gave the Privateers a 2-1 lead with 20 minutes remaining in the opening half.

USMMA went on to score four consecutive goals and take their first lead of the game, but the Maritime offense was still finding some space before halftime as Deleva picked up her third assist of the game by finding Pfundstein in front of the net once again. Unfortunately, the strong defense from the Mariners kept Maritime off the scoreboard for the remainder of the half and stole the momentum heading into the locker rooms with a 9-3 advantage at halftime.

The physical defense from USMMA continued to stifle the Privateers offense in the second half and the Mariners were able to improve to 11-0 on the season with a 16-3 win.

"We came out playing really well to start the first half, but USMMA made the right adjustments defensively and we just weren't able to respond the way I hoped," said head coach Alyssa Guido. "USMMA is a very good team, but we need to be better on offense if we want to compete with the best teams in the conference. We have another tough matchup Tuesday so I'm excited to get back on the field and prove what we're capable of doing."

Wright picked up five draw controls in the game to improve her career total to 190 at the top of the record books. Esmeralda Hernandez (Huntington, N.Y./Huntington) had a solid performance in net as she recorded 15 saves.

Maritime returns to Reinhart Field on Tuesday at 7 p.m. for a Skyline Conference matchup with Farmingdale St.