Philadelphia, PA – Despite four goals and two assists from junior attacker Brittain Altomare, the Hofstra Women's Lacrosse team dropped a 9-8 overtime decision to Temple on Wednesday afternoon at Geasey Field.
Temple trailed 7-1 late in the first half before scoring eight of the final nine goals in the contest to earn the one-goal victory.
Junior goalie Kelsey Gregerson stopped a career-best 12 saves for Hofstra.
The loss drops Hofstra's record to 5-4 this season, while Temple improves to 3-5 with the win.
Hofstra jumped all over the Owls to start the game, leading 5-0 less than 15 minutes into the contest. Altomare and senior midfielder Alexandra Mezzanotte were the key performers for the Pride early on as Mezzanotte had two goals and an assist in the first eight minutes of the game and Altomare had three goals and two assists in the opening stanza to allow Hofstra to stake itself to a four-goal advantage (7-3) at the break.
The Pride took its largest lead of the first 30 minutes when Altomare scored an unassisted goal at the 4:54 mark to make it 7-1 in favor of Hofstra. Temple would cut the deficit to four goals at halftime as Megan Pinkerton notched the final goal of the half with 2:15 left before the intermission.
The second half would begin with Carly DeMato closing the gap to 7-4 before Altomare pushed the Hofstra lead up to four goals, with an unassisted goal at the 20:21 mark.
Temple would completely take over at that point as the Owls scored the final four goals of regulation, including three goals in the final nine minutes to knot the score at eight. The tying goal came off the stick of Nicole Tiernan with 5:27 to play in regulation.
Tiernan would be the hero for Temple on this day as she notched the game-winner with 39 seconds left in the opening overtime to catapult the Owls to the come-from-behind win.
Sophomore defender Lindsey Alfano led Hofstra in ground balls and caused turnovers with three and two, respectively. Mezzanotte finished with three points in the game, while Altomare and junior defender April Iannetta each posted three draw controls for the Pride.
DeMato led Temple with three goals, with Pinkerton and Tiernan each adding a pair of goals in the contest. Morgan Glassford and Maddie McTigue had two ground balls each for the Owls. Jaqi Kakalecik had seven saves for Temple in the win.
Hofstra returns to action on Saturday, March 22 when it travels to Albany for a 12 p.m. contest. The Great Danes are receiving votes in this week's Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) poll. Albany earned a 14-3 win over William & Mary on Tuesday to improve to a perfect 6-0 this season.
