LOUDONVILLE, N.Y. - Junior Kimmy Baligian (Whitehouse Station, N.J./Hunterdon Central) scored the game-winner in the 63rd minute to allow the Monmouth University field hockey team to escape from Siena College with a 5-4 victory, Sunday afternoon at Siena Field Turf. The Hawks, who received junior Michelle Pieczynski's (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks West) third hat trick of the season, improve to 10-4 (2-0 NEC), while the Saints fall to 0-13 (0-2 NEC).
With the game knotted at 4-4, Pieczynski connected with Baligian who shot the ball past Siena's goalkeeper, Beth Meyers, for her third goal of the season and first game-winner.
MU and Siena alternated goals for the first five tallies of the contest. Pieczynski scored her first of the game 8:27 into regulation from a feed from sophomore Patricia O'Dwyer (Dublin, Ireland/Loreto Beaufort) for a 1-0 advantage. The Saints evened the score with Sarah Szewczyk's goal in the 22nd minute but the Hawks regained the lead on Pieczynski's unassisted tally five minutes later to enter the break ahead, 2-1.
Jessica Smith's strike that deflected off MU starting goalkeeper Teresa Mathews (Lumberton, N.J./Rancocas Valley) opened up the second half scoring to tie the game at 2-2. Pieczynski answered for the Hawks by completing her hat trick 15:46 minutes into the stanza when she beat the Saint's defender and fired a shot into the back of the cage for her 15th goal of the season, giving the Hawks their third lead of the game. Graduate Morganne Firmstone (Honesdale, Pa./Honesdale) connected with senior Ashley McPeek (Hazlet, N.J./St. John Vianney) along the endline where she scored her first goal of the year, giving the Blue and White a two goal advantage.
Smith tallied two goals, her second and third of the contest, for Siena within four minutes to tie the game at 4-4 before Baligian converted the game-winner.
Mathews did not make a save in the win, while Meyers turned away 11 shots and received the help of four defensive saves.
MU dominated the stat sheet firing a season-high 34 shots, including 20 attempts on target, compared to Siena's eight. The Hawks also controlled the penalty corners , 13-6.
Monmouth returns to action next weekend as it welcomes Quinnipiac to So Sweet A Cat Field on Friday, October 14th, at 4 p.m. before hosting Sacred Heart on Sunday, October 16th, at noon.
