FINAL SCORE: Fairfield 14, Vermont 8
BURLINGTON, Vt. – Ava Vasile tallied a team-high four goals, but Vermont (1-4) suffered a 14-8 loss to Fairfield (4-2) on Saturday afternoon at Virtue Field.
 
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COACH'S QUOTE
"A really tough loss," head coach Sarah Dalton Graddock said. "We need to do a better job of showing up to play a full 60 minutes and value possession of the ball throughout. This game is a great experience for our team as we continue to learn with conference play quickly approaching."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Fairfield jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first 10 minutes of the game. Ellie Grefenstette sparked the early attack with back-to-back goals coming in a span of 0:40 seconds to start the Stags' run.
• Vasile stopped the Fairfield run when she notched her seventh goal of the season with 5:28 left in the first quarter. The senior added her second goal with 1:46 left in the frame to cut the deficit in half. Vasile drew contact and fired a shot past Casey Collins (7 saves) to trail 4-2 after one quarter.
• McKenzie Ballard pulled the Catamounts to within a goal with 1:41 into the second quarter on her first tally of the season. Meghan O'Connor elected not to shoot on a free-position attempts and found Ballard for the goal.
• The Stags countered with three-straight goals to go up 7-3 with 5:06 left in the opening half. Libby Rowe scored twice to lead Fairfield in its run.
• Vasile netted her third goal of the game to end Vermont's scoring drought, which spanned nearly 10 minutes, to cut the deficit to 7-4 with 3:54 left in the second quarter. Ciera Licare and Jane Trauger added goals in the final minutes as Vermont trailed 7-6 heading into halftime.
• Elizabeth Talluto scored back-to-back goals to open the third quarter to put the Stags up 9-6 with 12:48 remaining in the frame. Vasile countered with her fourth goal of the game to cut the Fairfield lead to 9-7 with 9:09 left on the clock.
• Olivia Doody added a goal for the Stags with 1:31 left to take a 10-7 lead into the fourth quarter.
• Fairfield opened the fourth quarter with four-straight goals to go up by seven with 0:52 to play. Talluto scored three of the Stags' goals in the final frame.
• Erin Kloostra added her second goal of the season on assist by Maddie Erskine in the final seconds of the game.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Vasile scored a season-high four goals on 10 shots. The senior scored on all four of the shots she directed on goal.
• Seven different Catamounts registered points on the afternoon, with Vasile as the only multi-point scorer.
• Carolyn Carrera matched a career-high seven turnovers for the Cats on the defensive end. The graduate student also picked up a game-high six ground balls.
• Brittany Barton picked up four ground balls and tallied three caused turnovers.
• Sophie McLaughlin recorded seven saves in goal for Vermont.

UP NEXT
The Catamounts return to action on Tuesday (Mar. 7) when they visit Harvard in Cambridge, Mass. The opening draw is set for 5 p.m. at Jordan Field. The matchup between the Catamounts and Crimson will broadcast live on ESPN+.