PISCATAWAY, N.J.- Monmouth University's women's lacrosse team fell to 9-4 on the season after losing a 14-9 contest to Rutgers University (7-6) on Wednesday night.
The Hawks started up slow in the first half, with Rutgers jumping out to a 5-0 lead early. Monmouth rallied to outscore the Scarlet Knights 7-6 in the second frame but it was not enough to overcome the 8-2 first half deficit.
Down by a six goal margin to start the second half, Monmouth freshman Rachel Feirstein (St. James, N.Y./Smithtown East) scored the first goal of the second half (her third of the game) to cut the RU lead to 8-3. Senior Ashley Waldman (Oceanport, N.J./Shore Regional) cut the lead in half with a free position goal coming at the 22:32 mark. After Megan Nutter (Moorestown, N.J./Moorestown) grabbed the draw control Rutgers capitalized off a MU turnover and tallied its first goal of the second half to take a 9-4 lead with 21:41 to play in regulation. Three minutes later Feirstein scored her fourth goal of the evening and Monmouth trailed 9-5. After the teams traded goals, Brooke Cantwell scored her third goal of the game and MU had just under 10 minutes to erase a 11-6 deficit.
Back to back goals from Monmouth's Megan Brennan (King of Prussia, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) and Nutter got the Hawks to within 11-8 but Cantwell scored a goal for the Scarlet Knights to extend the lead to 12-8 with less than four minutes remaining in regulation. Nutter scored once more for the Hawks but RU tallied two in the final minutes to earn the 14-9 victory.
After winning the opening draw Rutgers' Michelle Poole scored the first goal of the game to give RU a 1-0 lead just 16 seconds into the contest. Nutter had a free position attempt to tie it on the Hawks' first shot but Scarlett Knight goaltender Sandra Abel turned away the senior, keeping the score at 1-0. On that possession Rutgers came down and scored their second goal, once again from the stick of Poole to go up 2-0 with 22:50 to play in the first. RU's lead grew to 5-0 over the next four minutes with a pair of goals from Cantwell and a Mary Cryan tally. With Rutgers up 6-0, Feirstein scored the Hawks' first goal, cutting the lead to five with 12:20 left to play in the first half. The Scarlet Knights tallied two more goals over the next six minutes before Feirstein netted her second goal of the half with just over two minutes to play. MU went into halftime down by a score of 8-2.
Feirstein led the Hawks with four goals, her fourth four-goal performance of the season. The freshman attacker also finished with eight draw controls and a pair of ground balls for MU. Waldman and Nutter each had two goals while Monica Johnson (Radnor, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) made six saves while scooping four ground balls.
Cantwell led all scorers with six points, including five goals. Abel made 14 saves for the Scarlet Knights. Cryan, Poole and Franksoki each had two goals in the win.
Rutgers held a slight 30-28 advantage in shots while Monmouth committed 17 turnovers compared to just 12 for RU. The loss snapped a five game winning streak for Monmouth, while extending Rutgers' unbeaten streak to four games.
Monmouth gets back to conference play on Friday, April 11, when they head to St. Francis University. The match is set for 6 p.m.
