March 31, 2015
FINAL STATS | SDSU 13, BROWN 12
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Senior Christina Ricciardulli scored a career-high six goals and junior Sophie Koubek had the game-winning score with just four seconds left, as the San Diego State women's lacrosse team earned an improbable comeback victory over Brown, 13-12, Tuesday evening at Stevenson Field.
SDSU (8-3, 4-0 MPSF) trailed by six with 20 minutes remaining and was behind, 11-6, following a Brown goal with just 8:45 left to play. However, three-consecutive goals by Ricciardulli in just over a minute cut the Aztecs' deficit to 11-9, while unassisted scores from Koubek and junior Andrea Killebrew followed by Ricciardulli's free-position goal, gave San Diego State a 12-11 advantage with 3:45 to go.
Brown (5-4, 0-3 Ivy) responded with Lauren Toy's goal to knot the score, 12-12, with 2:43 remaining, but the Aztecs regained possession with 35 seconds left, and sophomore Vickie Porter got a free-position opportunity with just seconds remaining. After Porter missed on the free-position attempt, Koubek was there crashing the net, and scored the winning goal with only four seconds left on the clock.
"It was a huge comeback and a great win for the program," head coach Kylee White said. "To come from six goals behind says a lot about the character of our team right now. It's a big step in the growth of the program as we go forward."
It was San Diego State's seventh-straight victory when scoring at least 10 goals, but only its second win this season when trailing at halftime. The Aztecs won for the eighth-consecutive time when holding the edge in draw controls (15-12) and won their seventh in a row when outshooting their opponent (24-23).
In addition, Tuesday was SDSU's first-ever victory over an Ivy League opponent, while its eighth win of the season matches the program's highest single-season win total set in 2013.
Ricciardulli added three draw controls and two groundballs to go along with her six goals. Porter finished with two goals, three caused turnovers and three groundballs, Killebrew had two goals with three draw controls and Koubek tallied two goals and two groundballs.
Sophomore Kayla Deitz also scored for the Aztecs, while White said seniors Madison Wallace and Lauren Paul for anchored the defense. However, there was plenty of credit to go around afterward.
"I'm really proud of the entire team for the way we finished the game," White said. "We found out what type of competitors we want to be, and we decided to finish the game playing tough Aztec Lacrosse."
San Diego State will take the rest of the week off, but will return to action against Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) defending-champion Denver at home on Friday, April 12, beginning at 7 p.m. PT.