WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J.- Monmouth University women's lacrosse (10-3) won its seventh straight game and remained undefeated in conference play with a 11-10 win over Marist (7-5) Saturday at Monmouth Stadium.

Marist led 6-3 with 26:07 remaining in the game when the Hawk offense woke up, with Monmouth launching a six goal unanswered run over a 15 minute period. Senior Allison Stathius (Delran, N.J./Delran) scored a pair of goals with Michelle Gonzales (Marlton, N.J./Cherokee) netting one to tie the game up 6-6. Pierce then took over, scoring three straight goals over a five minute span to take a 9-6 lead with 12:50 to play.

The Red Foxes responded with three consecutive goals , including two from junior Allison Gionta to knot it up with 6:57 remaining. Monmouth regained the lead on Olivia Higson's (Cheadle Hulme, England/Withington Girls' School) unassisted goal with 5:20 to play but the eventual game winner came from sophomore Claudia LaMarca (West Long Branch, N.J./Shore Regional). With 2:17 remaining, Gonzales fed LaMarca who beat Marist goaltender Abby Witczak low to put the Hawks up 11-9. Marist wasn't done as Gionta scored her fourth goal of the game with 59 seconds left to cut the lead to one.

The Hawks won the ensuing draw but turned the ball over following a timeout. The Red Foxes had one last chance to tie it but Jackie DiMaria's shot was wide and Monmouth was able to run out the clock for its fifth conference win.

Monmouth dominated the draw, winning 19 of the 23 total draw controls. Juniors Marial Pierce (Middleburg, Va./St. John's Catholic Prep) and Kristina Vangeli (Hillsborough, N.J./Hillsborough) had nine and eight draw controls, respectively. Pierce finished with three goals on five shots while Vangeli had four ground balls and two caused turnovers in the win.”

“I think more than anything what helped us win was Marial and Kristina on the draw,” said Monmouth Head Coach Denise Wescott. “I thought that kept us in the game early. Our defense did a nice job protecting the middle. Offensively we started to move the ball quicker and cut quicker which produced some goals. Marial is a phenomenal competitor, she doesn't want to lose and that mentality helped us win today. She got the draw, she's tired but still goes to goal.”

“The nice thing is when we brought the team in after a timeout, they were believing in what we had to do. We just needed to talk about what we were trying to do strategically. The last timeout we were hoping to run some time off in the back a little bit but we gave up protection. We got a piece of their one shot then did a nice job to protect the middle in the end.”

Stathius scored the first goal three minutes into the game but Gionta answered with back to back goals to take a 2-1 lead. Marist scored one more to go up two goals before Higson cut the lead to 3-2 with 7:45 remaining.  Marist's Hayley Burke scored twice in the final six minutes to give the Red Foxes a 5-3 lead going into the break.

Pierce and Stathius finished with three goals while Gonzales led the Hawks with four points. Gionta finished with a game-high eight points, including five goals. Hayley had three goals while Olivia Pitonzo had three assists for the Red Foxes.

Donohoe recorded four saves in the contest while Witczak had five saves in the game. Monmouth held a 23-16 advantage in shots, but committed 15 turnovers to Marists' 11.

Monmouth returns to the field on Wednesday when they travel to Fairfield for a 3 PM game.