WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – Monmouth University's women's lacrosse team finished the non-conference season with a 6-3 record after dominating Central Connecticut State 12-3 on Wednesday afternoon.
 
Monmouth junior Nicole Ceraso (Massapequa, NY/Plainedge) tallied eight points on four goals and four assists while Rachel Mills (Denville, NJ/Morris Catholic/Towson) and Allison Turturro (Sound Beach, NY/Miller Place) each had three goals apiece in the win. Monmouth outshot CCSU 42 to 9 in the contest but Blue Devil goalie Jackie Brandhover was outstanding in net, making 21 saves in net. Senior Monica Cortes (Miller Place, NY/Miller Place) had a career-day on defense for the Blue & White gathering nine ground balls and forcing five caused turnovers.  CCSU committed 34 turnovers, 16 of them were caused by Monmouth players.
 
Ceraso came into the game needing just one assist to move into a tie for third all-time. She now has 88 career assists, which is four behind Janette Stott for second place. Her eight points ties a career-high.
 
The Blue Devils took a 1-0 lead just 1:06 into the game on a Carrisa Brown unassisted tally but Turturro scored the next three goals to give the Hawks the lead. The first half ended with MU ahead 5-2 before Mills got the goal scoring going in the second frame. CCSU responded with 21:54 left to half the Monmouth lead but the Hawks scored the final six goals of the contest to secure their sixth win of the season.
 
NOTES & QUOTES
"We've been focusing on spreading out our cuts in the past few practices and that resulted in us connecting on more passes. We've been struggling to play a full sixty minutes and we still need to work on that heading into conference play but we've been fighting hard, not giving up and I think that's really important too." Junior Captain Nicole Ceraso
 
"I think anytime you win a game you are happy. We wanted a full sixty-minute game and we are still working towards that. There's no better time to do that then when you start conference play. We have a really great game against Niagara on Saturday and we'll need to play a full game against them. All of our non-conference games set us up, we have a winning record coming out of non-conference play and that's great for our confidence. I believe that confidence is the most important part of being a good player. We have a lot of good momentum and good things happening and now we have the confidence to go with it to start conference play." Monmouth Head Coach Jordan Trautman
 

• The Hawks have a winning record coming out of the non-conference portion of the season for the first time since the 2011 season
• Monmouth's defense only allowed six shots on goal in the contest or an average of one every 10 minutes
• Megan Hart finished with eight draw controls in the contest
• Mills filled the stat sheet once again, adding four ground balls and three caused turnovers to her trio of goals. The junior also did not turn the ball over once.
• Monmouth is now 15-0 all-time against the Blue Devils. The Hawks are 7-0 at home and are 3-1 this season against Northeast Conference opponents.

 
NUMBERS CRUNCH

• Both teams struggled from the 8 meter, with CCSU going 0-for-1 and Monmouth going 1-of-6
• Monmouth dominated the draw circle, 14-3
• The Hawks had a season-high 36 ground balls in the contest
• MU's defense allowed just two shots in the first half
• Logan Smet and Allison Stofregen each had a goal for the Blue & White
• Nine different Hawks had caused turnovers in the contest
• Brandthover added seven ground balls to her 21 saves

NEXT UP
Monmouth opens Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play on Saturday with a 1 PM game against Niagara.