WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. - The Monmouth University lacrosse team dropped an 11-6 contest to Fairfield University in the season opener for both teams on Saturday afternoon at Kessler Field.

Monmouth opened up a 3-0 early lead Fairfield scored six unanswered goals to close out the first half and take a 6-3 lead into the break, one they would not relinquish.

"I thought we did some nice things but we gave up the ball in the midfield too much and got stripped of the ball too much, and the attack did not create enough high quality shots," said head coach Denise Wescott. "They were great at driving and found some open players. I thought our goalie really played well especially in the second half."

Monmouth took the lead 2:18 in to the game as freshman Rachel Obregon (Fairfax Station, Va./W.T. Woodson) found a cutting Molly O'Brien (Kennett Square, Pa./Unionville) who fired a shot inside the left post to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead.  O'Brien registered her second goal, on a free position, less than four minutes later to give the Blue and White a two goal advantage.

With 18:14 left in the first half, O'Brien found an open Tori Jordan (Sewell, N.J./Washington Township) who shot the ball through the legs of Stags' goalkeeper Katie Keenan for the sophomore first goal of the season and a 3-0 MU lead.

Fairfield scored six unanswered goals, including two from Katie MacKay and Chloe Mangan, over the last 11:35 of the half to take a 6-3 lead into the intermission.

Monmouth struck less than five minutes into the second half as O'Brien found senior Kaitlin Feeney (Baltimore, Md./Towson) who found the back of the net to cut the Stags lead to two, 6-4.

Caitlin Townsend scored two goals in a two-minute span to increase a four goal lead for Fairfield.

Mangan tallied her third  goal of the game with eight minutes remaining to push the Stags to 9-4.

Obregon registered her second goal of the game as she fired a shot to the top right corner of the cage to cut the lead to four.  Just over a minute later, senior Rachel Feirstein (St. James, N.Y./Smithtown East) scored her first goal of the season as she took a feed from junior Sam Lillo (Short Hills, N.J./Millburn) and shot it past Keenan to bring the Hawks within three with 4:15 left.

Mangan scored two more goals in the last 1:30 to finish the scoring at 11-6.

O'Brien had two goals and two assists to lead the Hawks, Obregon, playing in her first collegiate game had a goal and an assist.  Goaltender Kirby Mundorf (Cambridge, Md./Seton Keogh) had 15 saves in the game as Monmouth was outshot by a 38-14 margin in the game.

Managan led all scorers with six points on five goals and an assist.  Mackay and Townsend each had two goals in the game.  Fairfield goaltender Katie Keenan made five saves in the win.

Monmouth returns to action on Saturday, February 26 when it hosts Columbia at 1:00 pm.