SHEPHERDSTOWN W.Va. – After falling to the top two nationally-ranked teams in its past two contests, the No. 3 East Stroudsburg University lacrosse team bounced back with a convincing 18-10 win over Shepherd on Saturday afternoon at Rams Stadium. ESU Head Coach
Xeni Barakos-Yoder '11 became the program's all-time wins leader with her 107th win in just her 138th game as head coach of the Warriors.
The Warriors (6-3, 2-1 PSAC East) return to its winning ways after a pair of tough losses. The Rams (3-4, 1-3 PSAC East) fall after picking up its first PSAC East win over Shippensburg on Wednesday.
Barakos-Yoder
- Barkos-Yoder now holds a career record of 107-31 in the midst of her ninth season.
- The ESU alumna surpasses current field hockey head coach Sandy Miller (106-167), who also coached lacrosse from 1985-04.
- Barakos-Yoder guided the Warriors to all six of its NCAA Tournaments in program history (2017-19, 2021-23), its two PSAC Championships (2017-22) and three NCAA DII Regional titles (2018, 2021-22) in program history. In 2022, the Warriors advanced to the program's first-ever national championship game.
- She has been named the IWLCA DII Atlantic Region Coach of the Year three times (2018, 2021-22) and the PSAC East Coach of the Year twice (2016-17).
Offensive Notables
- Senior Emily Mitarotonda flexed her muscles as the three-time All-American registered a career-high 11 points on career-best nine goals and one assist. The Rockaway N.J. native now has 35 goals, and 12 assists for 47 points in eight contests. She has registered at least three points in all but one game this season as the senior leads the conference in goals per game (4.38), while ranking second in points per game (5.88) and caused turnovers per game (2.8), seventh in draw controls (4.63) and ninth in ground balls per game (2.75).
- Freshman Hannah Schiemer added three goals to remain second on the team with 16 goals this season while Sophia Graffeo and Jolee Roth each found the back of the cage
- Mary Fitzsimmons dished out a team-high two assists while Molly Atwell and Courtney Reynolds both collected assists
Defensive Notables
- Reigning PSAC East Athlete of the Week Abby Simonetti allowed six goals and made six saves in the first half, while Bella Gismondi (4 GA) posted four stops in the second half to earn the win
- Jameson Kernaghan and Mitarotonda each caused two turnovers while six other Warriors recorded one
- Mitarontonda scooped up a team-high four ground balls, Claire Hoffman and Atwell totaled three, while Kernaghan and Schiemer each had two
- Mitarotonda's dominating afternoon continued in the draws as the senior matched her career-high with 12, while Alexis Neumen secured seven draw controls
How It Happened
- Mitarotonda opened the scoring, taking a pass from Schiemer off a free position and deposited the shot in the back of the cage.
- Shepherd evened the score at 1-1, but Mitarotonda answered, intercepting a pass from the Shepherd goalkeeper and fired her second goal.
- Mitarotonda was able to score her third goal to increase the Warriors' lead to 3-1, but SU was able to answer to make it a one-goal game.
- Mitarotonda kept the momentum going with her fourth goal of the first quarter and added her fifth score to open the second frame, lifting ESU to a 5-2 lead.
- The Rams grabbed momentum, scoring three unanswered goals to tie the game at 5-5.
- Mitarotonda ended the run with her sixth goal, as SU knotted the game before halftime.
- After halftime, Heller, Roth and Schiemer fired goals to lift the Warriors to a 9-6 edge.
- The Rams answered with a pair of goals to make it a 9-8 game.
- Hallman extended its lead to two goals with a pair of goals to start the Warrior run, as Mitarotonda fired her seventh goal to extend Warriors' lead to four at the end of the third quarter to 11-8.
- Mitarotonda connected on her eighth goal to open the scoring in the fourth quarter while Schiemer and Heller each found the back of the cage to extended ESU's lead to 18-9
Up Next
- ESU returns to action on Wed., April 3rd, when the Warriors head to Bloomsburg. Game time is set for 2:00 p.m. at Steph Pettit Stadium.
