Fresno State lacrosse shattered records during their home opener against Stetson on Saturday.
Sophomore Sydney Skalstad set the program record for the most goals in a single game with eight in the 21-13 smackdown victory against the Stetson Hatters. Her record-breaking performance also doubled her single-game career-high.
Along with Skalstad, junior Lauren Kiszely set the program record for the most assists in a single game with six. Kiszely assisted on five of Skalstad’s goals.
“I know that the girls were really excited to kick it off at home,” said interim head coach Kara Concheck. “Coming out strong and staying composed under pressure for 60 minutes was definitely one of our goals. We also proved today that we could score at will.”
The Bulldog’s 21 goals were the most goals scored at home in the history of the program and were the third most goals ever scored.
While Skalstad and Kiszely set records, the rest of the team was not far behind. Senior Kayla Galet and junior Megan Walaitis both earned hat tricks, and senior goalie Laurel Maunder recorded nine saves and held Stetson to 24 shots. Senior Tiffiny Wallace earned four assists out of the Bulldogs’ ten for the second consecutive time.
Concheck says that the home opener was “a great team win” and that the team did a really good job at “sharing the wealth.”
The Stetson Hatters fell behind early as Fresno State opened up the first minute of the game scoring two goals. By the time the Hatters got on the board, the Bulldogs were up three goals.
With a little under 24 minutes left to go in the first period, Fresno State started its rally on Skalstad’s second goal of the game. Her goal was one of eight unanswered goals by Fresno State.
By the 10-minute mark, Stetson scored their third goal, but the damage had already been done as halftime hit. Fresno State was leading 14-4, but Stetson regrouped.
The Hatters opened the second half scoring three straight goals ”” two coming within the first minute.
This was an early sign that the second period was going to be different, and Concheck told the team to expect this.
“That is definitely something that we talked about at halftime, and it’s something any coach would talk about,” said Concheck. “We expected Stetson to come out strong and we needed to exceed that.”
The Bulldogs fought through Stetson’s rally and scored two more to extend the lead. Stetson would not be able to close the big gap as each team went back and forth throughout the rest of the second period.
Stetson was only able to cut the deficit to six goals at the 19-minute mark before it was over.
Fresno State lacrosse improves to 2-1 on the season and will go on a long road trip as they travel to Tempe, Arizona to face Marquette University on Feb. 29. The next time the Bulldogs will be at home is on March 12.