Despite making two comebacks and holding a two-goal lead well into the first half, the Yale women’s lacrosse team fell to No. 10 Stony Brook in New York on Tuesday night.

The Bulldogs (2–4, 0–1 Ivy) fought hard against the Seawolves (2–1, 0–0 American East), clawing back from a pair of deficits, but in the end, the offensive force of Stony Brook’s Dorrien Van Dyke and Courtney Murphy — each of whom accrued five goals — proved too much for Yale. Despite the loss, the Elis held their own against the highly ranked team whose only loss was by one goal to No. 3 Florida, a takeaway Yale found solace in.

“We really showed ourselves how well and how hard we can truly play,” goalie Sydney Marks ’18 said. “I mean, we held our own and were beating a top-10 team at one point. How awesome is that?”

In a tightly contested first half, both teams gained and lost momentum as the lead exchanged hands. Van Dyke notched her first tally for Stony Brook just 10 seconds into the game, before Yale’s leading goal scorer, attacker Tess McEvoy ’17, evened the score less than two minutes later.

Murphy then answered with her first goal of the game to reclaim the lead for the Seawolves. Van Dyke quickly followed, extending the lead to 3–1.

But after another two-minute interval, the tide shifted yet again, as midfielder Lauren Wackerle ’16 scored back-to-back goals to tie the game once again, this time at 3–3. With 18:25 remaining in the half, McEvoy broke the tie with her second goal of the evening.

McEvoy was not done making her presence felt in the half, as she assisted midfielder Lily Smith ’18 for the game’s next goal. It was the Bulldogs’ fourth unanswered, which gave Yale its first lead of the class.

However, Stony Brook retaliated with two goals of its own in the final 11 minutes of the half, both from the stick of Van Dyke. Behind Van Dyke’s four goals, Stony Brook managed to withstand the Elis’ best shot and carry momentum into the half with the game tied at five apiece.

“We came out so strong. We really fought for that first half,” McEvoy said. “We were excited to be tied with a top-10 team. Moving forward we will be focusing on competing with that kind of focus and intensity for a full 60 minutes.”

Despite being outshot 14–5 in the first half, Yale scored on each attempt on goal to keep pace with Stony Brook.

While such scoring efficiency cannot be reasonably sustained, defender Victoria Moore ’17 attributed it to Yale offense’s style of play.

“We only took five shots, but we had extremely long possession on attack, and our attack placed the shots really well,” Moore said. “While we wanted to get more shots off, we also wanted to tire out the defense because then the shots became super easy and wide open.”

Eleven seconds into the second half, Stony Brook struck immediately to take its third lead of the contest.

This time the Seawolves would not relinquish their advantage.

In rapid succession, Stony Brook scored twice more to bring the lead to three, before Smith struck again to stymie the bleeding — but only for a couple minutes. Stony Brook scored two more, both from Murphy, to widen the margin to four.

With the score at 10–6, McEvoy finished a hat trick with 14:17 remaining in the game but Yale did not score again. The Bulldogs gave up three more goals after that, as Van Dyke and Murphy each scored their fifth goals. Neither team scored in the final 10 minutes, as the Seawolves coasted to victory.

In the end the lopsided 32–12 Stony Brook shot total proved too much for Yale to maintain the lead. Not helping its cause was the 20 turnovers committed by Yale, as opposed to just nine for Stony Brook.

“I think it didn’t come down to how many shots either team had,” Marks said. “A team can take 12 shots and [score on] eight or 10 of them while the other can take 34 and only put away six, so I really think it was actually the turnovers … That right there made the difference in closing off quite a few opportunities for us.”

Despite ceding 13 goals, Marks ended up setting a career record for saves with 12 — nine more than the Seawolves’ two goalies, Anna Tesoriero and Kaitlyn Leahy, combined for on the night.