Carmine Angioli/For the Staten Island Advance
Wagner College’s Michelle Tumolo might be a first-year head coach, but she has already banked one piece of veteran wisdom: It’s OK, when necessary, to push buttons until one works.
With her Seahawks trailing Fairfield 10-7 in the second half of their NCAA women’s lacrosse tournament opening-round match Tuesday, Tumolo changed goaltenders, bringing freshman Lauren DiStefano in to give graduate senior Kelsey Fee a breather.
The Seahawks (16-3) scored the next four goals and then, with Fee back in goal, prevailed over a nip-and-tuck final 20 minutes to record a 15-13 win that advanced them to meet host Princeton in a first-round game tomorrow night at 7 (ESPN 3). It’s Wagner’s third time to the NCAA Tournament in the last four seasons and the second straight season they’ve won an opening-round game. Wagner has won seven straight games. The 16 wins are the single-season program record.
“We came out a little flat (Tuesday),” Tumolo said, noting a goaltending change in lacrosse isn’t as earth-shaking as, say, changing quarterbacks in football. “(We’ve) had a lot of resilience all season. We were looking for a spark. That happened when we subbed our freshman goalie. We got a few stops.”
Goals by Stephanie Falcone, Erin Kerstetter and leading goal-getter Madeline Seims pulled Wagner even. The fourth goal of five by senior Megan Drum made it 11-10.
Tumolo might have a knack for finding sparks. That’s how Drum, from Shamong, New Jersey, went from having three career goals to amassing 34 so far this year.
“As a first-year coach coming in with a clean slate, I didn’t know much about anyone,” said Tumolo, a New Jersey native and Syracuse grad who was an assistant at Oregon before coming to Wagner. “Megan had (come back from) a knee injury. It’s her senior year and she knew she needed to help the team. She crushed practice for about a week straight and we said ‘We have to get her on the field. She could be the difference.’”
Drum’s fifth goal put Wagner up 13-11. Fairfield equalized with 8:43 left, but Kerstetter put Wagner ahead to stay unassisted at the 6:49 mark with her 36th goal of the year and Maria Henwood made it a two-goal edge with 2:57 left.
From there, Wagner’s defense, seventh in the nation in goals allowed, kept the Stags at bay.
“(Fee) does better sometimes when she gets a break,” Tumolo said. “She was rooting hard on the sideline and I told her she was going back in to finish it off.
“I was an offensive player my entire life, so I can’t say that (I was stressing defense). But I knew we had a lot of experienced players on defense and it’s because of our defense (they held on vs. Fairfield).”
The win earned them a meeting tomorrow against Princeton, winner of six straight Ivy League titles.
“We were coming off a great season and beat a great team (to advance),” Tumolo said. “(Princeton is) another great team. It will be a battle. We’re just ecstatic to live another day.”