UNIVERSITY PARK, PA. - The Monmouth University field hockey team had its program-best seven-game win streak stopped as it fell to #15 Penn State, 7-2 at the Field Hockey Complex, on Sunday. The Hawks, who have received votes in the Kookaburra / NFHCA National Poll, drops to 8-2 on the season, while the Nittany Lions improve to 8-3.
"We did not play our game plan in the first half and were caught on our heels," said head coach Carli Figlio. "Penn State is an excellent team and took advantage of all the opportunities we gave them."
Penn State scored four goals, three by Kelsey Amy, within the first nine minutes of the game to jump out to an early 3-0 lead.
Sophomore Michelle Pieczynski (Doylestown, Pa./Central Buck West) received a feed from senior Morganne Firmstone (Honesdale, Pa./Honesdale) off a penalty corner and beat Nittany Lions' starting goalkeeper Ayla Halus for her sixth tally of the season to make the score 3-1 with 25 minutes left in the first half.
PSU followed with two more goals to take a 6-1 lead into the intermission.
The Nittany Lions scored 12 minutes into the second half as Hannah Allison beat Monmouth goaltender Melissa Katz (Tinton Falls, N.J./Monmouth Regional [Michigan State]) to extend the lead to six goals.
Freshman Alex Carroll (Oceanport, N.J./Shore Regional) connected on her ninth goal of the season with 12 minutes remaining to make the score 7-2, as she fired a feed from senior Meredith Violi (Stroudsburg, Pa./Stroudsburg), off a penalty corner, past Nittany Lions' replacement goalkeeper Ali Meves, to cut the lead to five.
Halus is credited with the win after playing the first half making one save. Meves, who mined the cage in the second half, also turned away one shot for Penn State. Katz made eight saves in the losing effort.
Penn State held the advantage in shots, 20-7 and penalty corners, 7-4.
Monmouth concludes the non-conference portion of its schedule on Friday, October 8th when it travels to New York to battle Columbia, starting at 4:00 p.m.
