WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J.- Monmouth University's women's lacrosse team improved to 9-3 (3-1 NEC) on Sunday with a 20-6 victory over Long Island (2-10, 1-3 NEC) at Kessler Field.
The 20 goal effort was the highest offensive output of the season for the Hawks, who were led by sophomore Ali Pollock (Watervliet, N.Y./Shaker). Pollock tallied a career-high four goals and four assists for eight points. She becomes just the ninth player in school history to have a eight point game and the eighth player to have four assists in a game.
Monmouth scored the first five goals, all in a seven minute span, including two from Pollock. Jillian Mariconda cut the Monmouth lead to four with her shot at the 20:08 mark but the Hawks responded with four more unanswered goals and MU held a 9-1 lead with 9:50 to play. Over that span Megan Brennan (King of Prussia, Pa./Archbishop Carroll), Ashley Waldman (Oceanport, N.J./Shore Regional) and Rachel Feirstein (St. James, N.Y./Smithtown East) each notched two goals. Maricondo scored her second but Waldman and senior Megan Nutter (Moorestown, N.J./Moorestown) finished up the first half scoring and the Hawks took a 12-2 lead into the locker room.
Brennan tallied her third goal of the game 2:30 into the second half but LIU's Annie Kalata and Christie Wienckowski scored back to back goals to cut Monmouth's lead to 13-4. Three straight goals from the sticks of Nutter, Pollock and Brennan expanded Monmouth's lead outside of LIU's reach despite Wienckowski scoring her second goal of the game with 12:15 left. After Nutter's fourth goal, Hawk freshman Kaitlin Feeney (Baltimore, Md./Towson) tallied her first career goal, getting a feed from Nutter with 9:55 to play, to give MU a 18-5 lead. Pollock and Carissa Franzi (Fairfield, N.J./West Essex) scored the final two Hawk goals, with Kalata scoring a goal for LIU with 19 seconds left.
Pollock led all scorers with eight points, coming on four goals and four assists. Nutter finished with four goals and two assists for six point, while Waldman (3g-2a) and Brennan (4g-1a) each had five points in the win. Waldman also had three ground balsa nd three draw controls in the win. Franzi finished with three points with a goal and two assists while scooping up two ground balls.
Maricondo, Kalata and Wienckowski all had two goals for LIU.
Monmouth's Monica Johnson (Radnor, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) made five saves in the win, while freshman Kirby Mundorf (Catonsville, Md./Seton Keogh) had a career-high three saves in 20 minutes of work. Bostwick finished with seven saves on the day for LIU. Monmouth finished with a 33-20 advantage in shots and forced Long Island to 22 turnovers.
The Hawks are back in action on Wed., April, 9, when they travel up to New Brunswick to face Rutgers University. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
