FAIRFIELD, Conn. -
The third-seeded Monmouth University lacrosse team won its fourth Northeast
Conference Tournament Championship overall, and first since 2007, with an 11-3 victory
over fourth-seeded Mount St. Mary's on Sunday afternoon at Sacred Heart
University's Campus Field. The Hawks now advance to the NCAA Tournament, where
they will take on Colonial Athletic Association Champion Towson University.
MU rode a historic defensive performance to the 2012 title,
allowing the fewest goals in NEC Tournament history in the process. The Hawks
gave up seven combined goals in their two conference tournament wins, besting the
previous mark of nine allowed by UMBC en route to its 2002 title. For the
second straight tournament match, MU kept its opponent off the scoreboard for
an elongated long stretch of competition; the Hawks kept the Mountaineers off
the scoreboard on Sunday for 54 minutes in the middle of the match, turning a
2-1 deficit into an 11-2 lead.
"I thought we played well," said MU Head Coach Denise
Wescott. "I thought offensively we were a little tentative early but our
defense put a lot of pressure on them. That
allowed our offense to settle down and get some late goals. At the end Katie
made some point blank saves too. Our defense have been solid all year.
Offensively once we settled in we got some good looks."
Monmouth freshman keeper Katie Donohoe (Peterborough, Ontario/ Holy Cross
Catholic Secondary), who was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player, was
stellar all weekend for the Hawks, capping off her championship performance with
11 saves against the Mount.
The Hawks were led offensively
by Sam Lillo's (Short Hills, N.J. /Millburn) four goals and Kaleigh Gibbons' (Candia,
N.H./ Manchester Central) three goals and two assists. Those two, along with
defender Kim McCormick (Springfield, Pa. /Springfield), were selected to the
all-tournament team.
Monmouth pushed its two-goal halftime cushion to three goals
when First Team All-NEC midfielder Kaleigh Gibbons (Candia, N.H./Manchester
Central/RMU) scored for the second time in the game, this one coming at the
24:24 mark. Sophomore Danielle Rakowitz (Montville, N.J./Montville) pushed the
Hawks in front 6-2 just over three minutes later off a feed from Allison
Stathius (Delran, N.J./Delran). The Hawks continued to put the pressure on offensively,
while Donohoe turned away shot after shot by the Mountaineers.
The Mount took a 1-0 lead on a Lindsay Diaz free position
goal in the first two minutes of the contest but just over a minute later Lillo
scored the equalizer. The Mountaineers retook the lead with 24:51 to play on a
Hannah Gutcher goal. Gibbons tied the game up for Mounmouth on a free posisiton
goal, beating Mount goalie Brigid McTavish low with 14:08 showing in the first
half. Sophomore Alex Marino (Howell, N.J./Freehold Twp.) gave the Hawks the
lead after taking a feed from Gibbons with 7:32 to play. Lillo added another
marker with just less than five minutes to play and the Hawks led 4-2. The
Hawks took that two-goal lead into the break and after 30 minutes of play MU
led in shots 12-5 and committed just four turnovers compared with the
Mountaineer's nine.
Lynn White (Deer Park, N.Y. /Deer Park) and Erica
Abendschoen (West Caldwell, N.J. /James Caldwell) also added goals for the
Hawks in the final, while freshman Allison Stathuis (Delran, N.J. /Delran)
contributed an assist.
MU outshot the Mountaineers, 27-18 in the match, while winning
nine draw controls, compared to seven for the Mount.
The Hawks will play Towson University, the CAA Champion next weekend. Check GoMUHawks.com
later in the week for date and time.
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