WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. ? The Monmouth University women's lacrosse team defeated Quinnipiac 17-7 in Northeast Conference action Friday afternoon at Kessler Field. MU improves to 12-4 and 6-1 in the NEC, while Quinnipiac falls to 7-6 and 5-3 in the league.
The win is head coach Kelly McCardell's 25th career victory, making her the fastest coach in Monmouth women's lacrosse history to reach that plateau.
Carolyn Raveia (Fairfax, Va./W.T. Woodson) led the MU offense with five goals and Megan Brennan (King of Prussia, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) and Ashley Waldman (Oceanport, N.J./Shore Regional) added three each for Monmouth.
Lyndsey Banach got the afternoon's scoring started as she put Quinnipiac up 1-0 with an unassisted tally three minutes into the game. Ashley Waldman (Oceanport, N.J./Shore Regional) scored the equalizer twenty seconds later for MU to tie the game at 1-1.
Katie Degen (Glen Head, N.Y./North Shore) gave the Hawks a 2-1 lead one minute later as she slashed towards the net and deposited the shot into the back of the cage from eight yards away. Ali Pollock (Watervliet, N.Y./Shaker) then gave the Blue and White a 3-1 lead, but Meghan Latonick then scored off an assist from her sister Katy to cut the Hawks' lead to 3-2. Megan Brennan (King of Prussia, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) then scored off a free position to increase the MU lead back to 4-2.
Megan Nutter (Moorestown, N.J./Moorestown) then took a feed from Degen and scored, then Waldman scored on a free position to give the Hawks a 6-2 lead at the 15:52 mark of the first half. Raveia scored an unassisted tally less than a minute later to increase the MU lead to 7-2.
Monmouth kept the offensive momentum rolling as Brennan took a pass from Raveia and scored after a Quinnipiac foul to take an 8-2 advantage. Banach then scored her second goal of the contest to make it 8-3 at the six minute mark. Katie Latonick then scored off a pass from Kelly Bruneau to make it 8-4, but Degen answered to make it 9-4 at the four minute mark. Colleen Burg (Marlton, N.J./Cherokee) followed that with an unassisted goal of her own before Raveia scored on another free position to make it 11-4 just before the two minute mark.
In the first half, MU was 3-for-4 on free position chances and won 10 draw controls, compared to six for Quinnipiac. The Hawks outshot the Bobcats 24-12 in the first half as well.
Raveia opened the second half by scoring off a Burg assist to pad the Hawk advantage to 13-4 with 27 minutes left. The Bobcats got back on the board as Kara Cornelius scored on an unassisted goal with 26:40 left in the game, but Waldman answered for MU when she took a Brittney McLaughlin (Coram, N.Y./Longwood) pass on a cut and scored to boost the Hawk lead to 13-5 at the 20 minute mark.
Brennan's goal at the 12 minute mark made the Hawk lead 15-5, and Raveia added another tally to increase the lead to 16-5 with 11 minutes remaining. Burg then added another goal from McLaughlin a minute later.
MU outshot the Bobcats 42-25 and caused 18 Quinnipiac turnovers. Kaitlyn Robinson (Huntington Station, N.Y./St. Anthony's) and Jessica Picciuto (North Caldwell, N.J./West Essex) added four ground balls each and Degen and Robinson each had five draw controls. Robinson added three caused turnovers in the game as well. Monica Johnson (Radnor, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) made nine saves to earn her 12th win of the season.
With Mount St. Mary's win today over Robert Morris, Quinnipiac clinched a spot in the NEC Tournament, joining Mount and Monmouth.
Monmouth returns to action on Sunday, April 22 when they travel to take on Long Island at 4 p.m. to conclude the 2007 regular season.
