Women’s lacrosse failed to come away with a win this past week dropping two home games, both by double-digits to extend their losing streak to three. Monmouth’s first loss came Wednesday afternoon as the team lost 18-7 to Temple. The Hawks struggles continued Saturday as they fell to Rutgers 19-8.
The Hawks were first to score against Temple as sophomore attacker Nicole Ceraso tallied her first of three goals at the 29:07 mark. Temple took less than a minute to respond with a goal of their own to even the game at one.
Junior attacker Jenny Staines broke that tie to put the Hawks up one with her first of three also. Temple went on a six-goal run right after to give themselves a 7-2 lead. The Hawks cut that lead to three thanks to back to back goals from Staines and Ceraso. Temple snapped right back with four straight goals over the remaining 12 minutes to extend their advantage to seven going into the half.
The Owls picked off where they left off, quickly adding two more before Ceraso added her third for the Hawks making it 13-5 Temple. Temple answered right away with a goal of their own but Staines kept Monmouth alive with her third also. At this point with 24 minutes left on the clock with the Hawks found themselves down 14-6.
No team would register a goal for the next ten minutes as the defensive play tightened up on both ends. Temple ended the offensive drought ripping of three straight goals to effectively put the game away. Monmouth’s senior midfielder Alexa Smith added one more for the Hawks as they fell to a 0-2 record.
“Our X’s and O’s were a little bit better than we were against Army. We are finding our own personalities offensively and defensively and now we need to lock some things up and most importantly we need to compete for 50-50 opportunities,” Monmouth Head Coach Jordan Trautman said.
Rutgers quickly jumped out to a three-goal advantage on Saturday as their offensive power proved too much all day. Monmouth’s senior mid-fielder Claudia LaMarca gave the team their first goal on an assist from Staines to make it 3-1. Rutgers offense onslaught picked right back up as they registered seven of the next nine goals over the remainder of the half.
LaMarca gave the Hawks some life coming out of the half, adding her second of the game to make it a 9-4 match. The Scarlet Knights rattled off five straight goals over the next 10 minutes to effectively put the game out reach with 20 minutes left on the clock. The Hawks continued to show determination as they would add four more before all was said and done. In the end Rutgers proved too much and the Hawks dropped to 0-3 on the season.
The Hawks struggled with turnovers all day committing a total of 19 to Rutgers’s 13. Monmouth also had trouble with groundballs as they only controlled 11 to Rutgers’s 20. The one shining spot on the stat sheet for the Hawks was their five for eight performance on free position shots.
“We are having a lot of trouble translating our practices into games,” Trautman said. “We need to compete all the time, regardless of who we are competing against. Once we translate the competitiveness we see in practice into games we will see success.”
Despite the implications of the lopsided scores, Monmouth’s junior goalkeeper Riley Brager continues to impress. Brager made 11 saves against Temple and eight against Rutgers to keep her team competitive in both games.
The Hawks will look to rebound with two more home games this week. Their first matchup will be on Wednesday against George Mason at 3:00 p.m. Their second game will take place Saturday against George Washington also at 3:00 p.m.
PHOTO TAKEN by Kalee Sell
