DURHAM, NH – Monmouth University's women's lacrosse team (2-6) outscored New Hampshire (2-5) 7-2 in the second half, including the final five goals of the game, to earn a 10-8 comeback win over the Wildcats on Monday.
Monmouth's
Alexa Smith (Westhampton Beach, NY/Westhampton Beach) scored a trio of goals, including the game-winner with 2:59 left.
Claudia LaMarca (West Long Branch, NJ/Shore Regional) added an insurance goal with just over a minute left and Smith won the ensuing draw control to seal the second win of the year for the Hawks. MU netminder
Riley Brager (Resiterstown, MD/Roland Park Country) had a season-high 14 saves while facing 22 shots to lead a defense that shut down UNH in the final 30 minutes.
After a first half that found the Hawks down 6-3 while being outshot 23-8, Monmouth dominated the second half outscoring UNH 7-2. During the final 30 minutes, MU allowed just eight shots while UNH had 11 turnovers. Wildcat Teagan Northrup put UNH up 7-3 early before the Hawks notched back to back goals from
Jenny Staines (Silver Spring, MD/Good Counsel) and
Caroline Corbliss (Ellicott City, MD/ Marriott's Ridge) to get Monmouth within two. Krissy Schafer scored for New Hampshire with 17:06 left before the Hawks strung together five unanswered goals beginning with
Logan Smet's (Rockville, MD/Academy of Holy Cross) unassisted marker with 12:18 to play. Smet scored her second goal four minutes later and Staines took a
Nicole Ceraso (Massapequa, NY/Plainedge) feed and buried it to tie the game at 8-8 with 6:27 remaining. Ceraso also assisted on Smith's game-winning goal and LaMarca's insurance goal, giving the sophomore five total points on the day.
NOTES AND QUOTES
"I'm really proud of the team for scrapping back into the game and fighting for the win. We had a couple of players in the second half step up and make some important plays.
Mackenzie Rendich had a great game on the defensive end with some big turnovers and
Megan Hart really stepped up to handle the ball in transition which created some key scoring opportunities."
Monmouth first year Head Coach Jordan Trautman
- Smith has now scored in every contest in 2018, the only Hawk to do so
- The win is the first road victory of the year for the Hawks and the first road win of Jordan Trautman's tenure
- Ceraso, the team leader in points, had five with four assists and a goal
- Rendich had a career-high four caused turnovers to go along with three ground balls in the win
- Brager followed up her five-save performance against Brown with a career-high 14 saves against New Hampshire
NUMBERS CRUNCH
- Monmouth was outshot 31-22
- All 14 of Monmouth's second half shots were on-goal
- UNH held a 15-5 advantage in draw controls
- The Hawks were 5-of-7 in free position goal attempts, UNH was 0-for-4 and didn't attempt a FPS in the second half
- Defender Megan Hart had three draw controls and three ground balls
- New Hampshire's two goalies combined for 10 saves
UP NEXT
Monmouth will wrap its four-game road trip against Drexel on Sunday in Philadelphia.
