WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. - The Monmouth University field hockey team defeated the Colgate Raiders, 5-1, on Sunday afternoon on So Sweet A Cat Field. With the win, the Hawks are now 2-1 on the season, while the Raiders fall to 1-3.
"We were able to bounce back nicely from yesterday's game and get back to playing Monmouth hockey," said head coach Carli Figlio. "Our goal was to come out and attack from the first minute and I think we accomplished that goal."
Monmouth struck 4:14 into the game when freshman Alex Carroll (Oceanport, N.J./Shore Regional) found Morganne Firmstone (Honesdale, Pa./Honesdale) on the left side of the circle. The senior fired a shot toward the near post for her third goal of the season and an early 1-0 lead. Firmstone's goal marks the quickest goal for the Hawks since Aubrey Clark scored 4:19 into MU's victory at Davidson in 2008.
Colgate evened the score 1:38 later, as the Raiders capitalized on a penalty corner. Adrianna Libutti inserted the ball to the top of the circle where Kenall Zaharris settled the pass and set up Laura Denega for a shot that deflected off a defender's stick and into the back of the cage, tying the game at 1-1.
Just under two minutes later, senior Katelyn Buckley (Westampton, N.J./Rancocas Valley) broke away from the defense and was alone in the circle and put her own rebound in for her first goal of the year, and a 2-1 Hawk lead, which they carried into halftime.
The Blue and White continued to supply the offense seven minutes into the second half, when Meredith Violi (Stoudsburg, Pa./Stroudsburg) stick-handled to the left endline and carried the ball into the circle, where she beat Colgate goaltender Kristen Lalli for her first score of the season, and a 3-1 lead.
Sophomore Michelle Pieczynski added the first of her two goals in the contest at the 49:29 mark to give Monmouth a 4-1 advantage, when she redirected a feed from Carroll into the cage. With just under 12 minutes remaining in the match, Pieczynksi notched her second score, an unassisted tally, to push the Hawks' lead to 5-1 and cap Monmouth's four-unanswered goal streak in the game.
Monmouth outshot the Raiders 16-6 in the game, forcing Lalli to make seven saves. Melissa Katz (Tinton Falls, N.J./Monmouth Regional) made one save for the Hawks.
The Hawks return to action next Saturday, September 11 when they host Brown at 4 p.m. on So Sweet A Cat Field.
