Box Score WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J.- Monmouth University's (1-0) women's lacrosse team used a dominating defensive effort to open the season with a 10-3 win over Lafayette (0-1) on Saturday at Monmouth Stadium.

Monmouth's defense stifled the Leopard attack, causing 16 miscues and holding Lafayette scoreless for a 42 minute stretch in the middle of the game. Junior defender Kristina Vangeli (Hillsborough, N.J./Hillsborough) recorded career highs in ground balls and caused turnovers with four, while adding five draw controls to her totals. Senior captain Allison Stathius (Delran, N.J./Delran) led all offensive players with four goals while fellow senior Emily Barbieri (Parsippany, N.J./DePaul Catholic) dished out a career-best four assists in the win.

“I thought we really dominated the day just because every unit did the things they needed to do and what they were capable of,” said Head Coach Denise Wescott.  Defensively it got to the point where they were frustrated. It was our defense that was able to stop their drive and they weren't finding players off ball because our players did a great job talking and passing people off. Offensively we really settled, worked the ball around and got some good looks. Early on we were getting good opportunities but we just didn't take good shots. That changed and we started to build some confidence on offense.”

Lafayette struck first after capitalizing off a MU turnover but the Hawks bounced back to score the next seven goals and keep the Leopards off the scoreboard for the next 42 minutes of the game. The Hawks built a 10-2 lead on Stathius' final goal with 7:55 to play with Lafayette adding a late goal to finish the scoring.

Sophomore Olivia Higson (Cheadle Hulme, England/Withington Girl's School) tied the game up five minutes after Lafayette took a 1-0 lead on Kristen Willhelmsen's goal and the Hawks went to work. Monmouth ripped off two more goals in a 2:30 span, including markers from Michelle Gonzales (Marlton, N.J./Cherokee) and Stathius to take a 3-1 lead. The teams played a defensive game the rest of the first half, with MU outshooting the Leopards 10-4 in the first frame but the halftime score rested at 3-1.

Midfielder Claudia LaMarca (West Long Branch, N.J./Shore Regional) opened the second half scoring at the 26:47 mark before three separate Hawks scored over the next 13 minutes. Monmouth's lead expanded to 7-1 with coals from sophomore Carly Sane (Clifton, Va./Centreville), Stathius and freshman Alexa Smith's (Westhampton Beach, N.Y./Westhampton Beach) first collegiate marker. Lafayette's Maggie Carver broke the scoring drought to cut the lead to 7-2 with 13:41 remaining but Stathius scored twice more and Higson added her second goal over a five minute span and the lead ballooned to 10-2.

Defenders Eva Irwin (Alexandria, Va./Bishop Ireton) and Gracie Williams (Reston, Va./Herndon) each had a pair of caused turnovers and ground balls in the win while Katie Donohoe (Peterborough, Ontario/Holy Cross Secondary) finished with three ground balls and five saves in net.

The Blue and White outshot LC 20-14 and won nine of the 15 draw controls on the day. Lafayette committed 24 turnovers while Monmouth had 21, but just three forced miscues. MU was 3-for-4 on free position shots, compared to 0-for-3 for the Leopards.

Wilhelmsen led the Leopard with two points, while Carver had three ground balls to go along with her goal. Leopard goalie Anna Raymond made nine saves and had a caused turnover in the loss.

Monmouth welcomes Colonial Athletic Association opponent Drexel to Monmouth Stadium on Wednesday, February 18 at 3 PM.