HAMDEN, Conn. - The Monmouth University softball team dropped a pair of Northeast Conference contests at Quinnipiac University, falling 2-0 and 4-1, on Sunday afternoon. The Hawks fall to 12-13 overall and 3-3 in the league, while the Bobcats improve to 19-14 and 3-1 in conference play.

In the afternoon's first game, QU starting pitcher Heather Schwartzburg fired a complete game, one-hitter, striking out seven and walking three, to best MU's Lauren Sulick (Canfield, Ohio /Canfield). Sulick earned the loss despite allowing six hits and two runs in a complete-game effort.

Senior Emily deLong (Rothschild, Wisc. /DC Everest) logged Monmouth's lone hit, a first inning infield single.

In the day's second contest, Schwartzburg earned her second win of the day, allowing one hit and no runs in four innings of work. Mina Duffy picked up the win in relief, tossing three innings of one-run relief for the Bobcats.

Sulick started for the Hawks, giving up three hits and one run in three frames of work. Senior Dara Palms (Humble. Tex. /Humble) took the loss for Monmouth, surrendering eight hits and three runs, two of which were earned, in three innings of relief.

The Hawks took a 1-0 in the second game when sophomore Christine Scherr (Nazareth, Pa. /Nazareth Area) scored on Shannon Fitzgerald's (Santa Clarita, Calif. /Valencia) first inning single to center.

Quinnipiac would add a pair of home runs in the game, a solo shot in the third and a two-run blast in the fourth, to take control of the second affair.

MU returns to action on Tuesday when it hosts La Salle in a nonleague doubleheader at 3:00 pm.