The women’s lacrosse team broke a three game losing skid on Saturday, Mar. 25 defeating conference rival Quinnipiac 12-8 at Yale University in New Haven, CT.
Monmouth was able to prevail in a closely contested match by scoring five goals in the final 17 minutes while holding Quinnipiac to none in the same timeframe to achieve victory. The Hawks improved to 3-7 on the season with the win and 1-0 in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Play.
“The start of the MAAC season was exactly what we expected: highly competitive and exciting,” Head Coach Eileen Ghent said.
Monmouth jumped out to a quick lead in thanks to standout freshman attacker Nicole Ceraso who scored in the 27th minute. The Hawks would bolster that lead over the course of the next three minutes by burying three more goals, all unassisted, from senior attacker Olivia Higson, senior mid-fielder Claudia LaMarca and Ceraso to take a 4-0 lead.
The Bobcats were able to get on the scoreboard in the 23rd minute and another goal would not be scored for 10 minutes. Monmouth senior attacker Alexandra Stambaugh restored the Hawks to a four goal lead, converting her free position opportunity. But Quinnipiac was responsible for the next two goals and before halftime was reached, the Hawks had a 6-3 lead.
Quinnipiac was the first to score coming out of the half, reducing the lead to two. However, Higson answered with her second of the day to put the Hawks up three. Quinnipiac did not go down so easily as the Bobcats scored four unanswered goals over a period of eight minutes to tie and then take the lead. With 19:15 left on the clock, the Hawks, for the first time in the game, found themselves trailing 8-7.
The Monmouth offense proceeded to answer the call as junior mid-fielder Kate Ryan netted her first of the day, assisted by LaMarca at the 17:20 mark. At this point both teams would stifle each other’s offense until Higson was able to break through and tally her third of the game to give the Hawks the 9-8 lead with 8:40 to go. Monmouth would not look back at this juncture and over the remainder of the game, they were able to score three more goals to achieve a 12-8 win.
Monmouth was well prepared to deal with the adversity they faced in the game. After establishing a lead only to see it erased in the second half, it was encouraging to see the team regroup and then execute to achieve a victory in a challenging game. The Hawks are now 4-0 all-time in MAAC openers with the win, defeating Siena twice, and Niagara and Quinnipiac once.
“We have had several games that have come down to the wire that haven’t gone our way, but we never ever gave up,” Ghent said. “Those experiences all paid off today when it got close in the second half.”
The Hawks could not have achieved victory without another outstanding defensive performance led by sophomore goalkeeper Riley Brager, who contributed with 12 saves en-route to being named MAAC Student-Athlete of the Week on Tuesday. The Hawks have been successful in converting and preventing free position shots throughout the season, and this game was no different. Monmouth was able to convert on one of their three chances but more impressively, they held the Bobcats to one of six.
“Both goalies played a tremendous game. Riley continues to get better and is becoming a strong leader back there for us. I’m very proud of our energy and execution in the second half. While we’re happy with the outcome, we are now fully focused on Marist,” Ghent said.
The Hawks will look to build upon their early success in conference and will take on Marist in their next matchup. The game will be played at Hesse Field at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday and it will also air on ESPN3.
PHOTO COURTESY of Bill Ryan
