Alyssa Parrella doesn’t play for the records. Ever since her 2017 freshman campaign during which she stormed onto the scene as an unheralded rookie out of Miller Place (N.Y.), Parrella has been chasing a CAA championship.
And while that is still very much the focus, Parrella has been setting program and conference records at Hofstra along the way. During Saturday afternoon’s 17-11 win over UConn at Hofstra’s Shuart Stadium, Parrella set a record that took much longer than expected to reach — about 11 months longer, actually.
Delayed close to a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Parrella finally etched her name atop the CAA record book as the conference’s all-time leading goal-scorer, passing Loyola’s Stacey Morlang, who set the mark from 1999-02. Parrella scored seven goals, giving her 226 for her career.
“I think that coming back and being able to accomplish something like that, it really does mean a lot to me,” Parrella said in a postgame Zoom conference.
Parrella also surpassed 300 career points in the game. Her 305 points are just 20 shy of the CAA’s career mark, which is held by Old Dominion’s Suzanne Wosczyna (2001-04).
“She has just gotten tremendously better each year,” Pride coach Shannon Smith said. “Anytime we give her something to focus on that year to get better with, she does. I think the months off helped her to get her body healthy and to feel super fresh for the season.”
The all-time program great is back for a fifth year in Hempstead, taking advantage of the blanket waiver granted by the NCAA, but she said the decision to return wasn’t made instantaneously. Once teammates Darcie Smith and Alexa Mattera made it clear that they wanted to return, though, Parrella was enticed to follow suit.
“Out of me, Darcie and Alexa, I was the last one to decide to come back,” Parrella said. “I just wanted to figure out what was best for me in the long run. Knowing that they were coming back, I couldn’t give up the opportunity to play with them again.”
Hofstra (2-0) jumped out to a 4-0 lead against the Huskies, with the fourth goal representing Parrella’s record-breaker. UConn (0-1) showed signs of life before halftime in its first game of 2021, cutting the deficit to 8-7 when Stephanie Palmucci assisted Sam McKenna with 1:34 left before the break. Parrella scored about a minute later to go up 9-7.
A five-goal spurt to start the second half was enough for Hofstra to put some distance between itself and UConn.
NIKE/US Lacrosse Top 20
No. 4 Syracuse 18, No. 3 Loyola 6
Albany at No. 17 Boston College, PPD
OTHER SCORES
Campbell 15, Stetson 5
Coastal Carolina 12, Winthrop 9
Drexel 19, Lehigh 17
Hofstra 17, UConn 11
LIU 13, Central Connecticut 4
Navy 10, Mount St. Mary’s 8
Saint Joseph’s 13, Army 9
Temple 17, Delaware 10
Longwood at George Mason, PPD