Box Score Loudonville, NY – Behind a combined 11 points from Olivia Higson (Cheadle Hulme, England/Withington Girls School) and Marial Pierce (Middleburg, VA/St. John's Catholic Prep) and 14 saves from goalkeeper Carolina Huelster, the Monmouth University women's lacrosse team held on to edge Siena, 16-15, in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference opener for teams, Saturday afternoon at Siena Turf Field.
"Starting 1-0 in MAAC play is very important,” said Monmouth Head Coach Eileen Ghent. “This league is competitive and every win will be earned, which makes this win even more significant. Today was an exciting, hard fought game. Siena is an explosive offensive team and one that will surely find success."
The Hawks (5-5, 1-0) carried a 12-10 lead into the second half but Siena (5-5, 0-1) netted three goals in the opening 9:29 of the stanza to take a 13-12 lead. Higson scored to tie things at 13-13, but Ashley Ruchalski's free position goal with 14:32 left gave Siena a one goal lead, 14-13. The Blue and White knotted the score again with 7:30 left in regulation on a marker by Piece before Caroline Corbliss (Marriottville, MD/Marriotts Ridge) scored twice over a 48-second span, including the eventual game-winner. Following a goal from Siena with 1:26 left, Pierce was able to control the ensuing draw control and Monmouth ran out the clock to clinch the road conference victory.
"Caroline Corbliss showed up huge today,” said Ghent. “She executed our game plan perfectly and did everything she could for us to win."
In the opening half, which featured a combined 22 goals, Monmouth wasted no time to get on the board as Michelle Gonzales (Marlton, NJ/Cherokee) capitalized off a feed from Pierce 43 second into the game, but the Saints answered quickly netting three straight goals to take a 3-1 lead. Kate Ryan (Morton, PA/Springfield) stopped the run with her 13th goal of the season to bring the Hawks back within one with 23:48 left, but goals from Briana Sirianni and Lauren Smith inflated Siena's lead back to three, 5-2. Pierce and the Saint's Michelle Schwartz exchanged goals before the Hawks got a three-goal spurt from Gonzales, Alexa Smith (Westhampton Beach, NY/Westhampton Beach) and Corbliss over a two minute span to knot the score at 6-6 with 15:48 left in the opening half. Back-to-back goals from Lauren Anglim put Siena up 8-6, but that sparked a five-goal run for the Blue and White. In just over five and a half minutes, Pierce and Higson both scored twice for Monmouth, while Higson also assisted on Smith's marker to put the Blue and White up three, 11-8. Siena halted the run with 4:40 left on Sarah Croutier's goal, but Higson scored her third goal of the half to put MU back ahead by three with 2:28 left. After surrendering a goal with a minute left, MU brought 12-10 lead into the break.
Both Pierce and Higson netted four goals, while Higson assisted on a pair of tallies to finish with a team-high six points and Pierce finished with a team-best eight draw controls. Gonzales scored twice and assisted on two goals to finish with four points to go along with three groundballs followed by Corbliss' who notched three points on her hat trick.
Senior Caroline Huelster (Mount Laurel, NJ/Lenape) finished with six ground balls to go along with her 14 saves to earn the victory. Samantha Horton and Ashley Holdridge split time in cage for Siena with latter suffering the loss despite eight saves.
For the game, Monmouth held a 35-32 edge in shots and was successful in 13 of its 15 clear attempts. The Hawks corralled 17 draw controls, compared 14 for the Saints.
Monmouth returns home next Sunday, April 3rd, when it plays hosts to Niagara a 1 p.m. The game will be broadcasted live from Monmouth Stadium on ESPN3.
