Photo by Monmouth Athletics
Box Score
West Long Branch, NJ – The red-hot Wagner College women's lacrosse team won its fourth straight game on Tuesday, building a 10-3 second-half lead before hanging on for a 10-9 win at Monmouth, snapping a 19-game losing streak vs. the Hawks in the 20
th meeting between the teams.
With the victory, in a contest that was seen live on ESPN 3, the Green & White improve to 5-2 on the season under first-year head coach
Michelle Tumolo, while Monmouth, a former Northeast Conference (NEC) rival who now competes in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, fall to 4-3.
"Credit to Monmouth, they never gave in, even when we had the big lead," said Tumolo. "Our defense came up really, really big. We were getting good shots off but just weren't putting the ball in the back of the net like we were in the first half, and their goalie (Riley Brager, 17 saves) played really well. But I'm just so proud of our team to come down here and get a big win."
Senior attack
Megan Drum tallied a career-high three goals on the afternoon while junior attack Stefanie Falcone and sophomore
Victoria Tucci supplied two goals and one assist apiece in spearheading the Seahawk offense.
The Seahawk defense also came up big, with senior
Kirsten Monte, the reigning NEC Defensive Player of the Week, and junior defender Lyndsay Haas each forcing a pair of turnovers, in front of senior goalie
Kelsey Fee, who came up with seven saves, including five big second-half stops as Monmouth was attempting its comeback.
Patrolling the midfielder for Wagner were sophomore speed merchant
Erin Kerstetter, who swooped in to collect a game-high six draw controls while fellow sophomore midfielder and reigning NEC Co-Offensive Player of the Week,
Madeline Seims, added five draw controls along with one goal.
The other goal-scorers for the Seahawks included freshman midfielder
Kasey Dorney, who also added an assist in finishing with two points, along with sophomore midfielder
Stefani Peluso.
The Green & White raced out to 4-0 lead in the game's first 11 minutes on goals by Tucci, Falcone, Drum and Seims, the latter off a Dorney feed. Monmouth finally got on the board against the Seahawks' smothering defense at 18:00 mark of the half on a goal by Caroline Bleck.
The Seahawks then closed the half on a 4-2 run in building an 8-3 halftime lead. After opening the second half with scores from Tucci and Drum, the latter off a Falcone feed at the 18:23 mark, Wagner had itself a commanding 10-3 lead and it appeared the Green & White were going to run and hide.
True to their long and proud tradition, the Hawks had other ideas, however, as Monmouth reeled off five consecutive goals in a 10-minute span, two coming from Nicole Ceraso, in closing to within two scores at 10-8 with 11:15 remaining.
The defenses then took over from there, as neither team could find the back of the net until Rachel Mills scored an inconsequential goal with just one second left in the game, as the Seahawks hung on for the 10-9 win.
Ceraso, Mills, and Jenny Staines led MU offensively with two goals apiece.
Wagner held a comfortable edge across the board statistically, leading in shots (43-27), ground balls (23-18), and draw controls (13-7), in addition to forcing 17 Monmouth turnovers 17 times while committing just 13 miscues of its own.
The Seahawk offense was flowing early, with assists coming on four of their nine non free position goals. Wagner, however, was unable to take advantage of a whopping 32 fouls called on Monmouth, as Wagner was just 1-of-9 on free position attempts while MU was 3-of-5 in this category.
After building that 10-3 lead, with the 10
th score coming on a Drum goal off a Falcone assist, the Seahawks were held scoreless for the game's final 23:02 of the game, but their defense was stout enough down the stretch to make those 10 goals stand up.
Wagner is next in action on Saturday, March 16 when the Seahawks host Manhattan in a 1:00 p.m. first draw at Hameline Field.
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