QU Women’s Lacrosse Suffers 15-6 Defeat at Monmouth

Saturday, April 9

Kessler Field - West Long Branch, NJ

1:00 PM

Quinnipiac University

2-10, 0-4MAAC

Monmouth

8-5, 4-0MAAC

Quinnipiac

Monmouth

QU Women’s Lacrosse Suffers 15-6 Defeat at Monmouth

4/9/2016 3:01:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score

Loren Antonacci Records First Career Multi-Goal Game in Defeat

By: QU Sports Information

WEST LONG BRANCH, New Jersey – The gusting winds and consistent rains made it tough heading in for the Quinnipiac women's lacrosse team but a matchup with the top team in the MAAC only made it that much more difficult as the Bobcats fell to the Hawks, 15-6, from Kessler Field on Saturday afternoon.

With the loss, Quinnipiac drops to 2-10 on the season and remain winless in league play at 0-4. Meanwhile, Monmouth holds steady with Canisius one of two undefeated teams in the conference as the Hawks improve to 8-5 overall and 4-0 in the MAAC.

Meeting for the 23^rd time in the series history, the most all-time matchups for any single Quinnipiac opponent, the Hawks moved to 17-6 all-time against the Bobcats with victories coming in the last three consecutive contests.

Loren Antonacci (Smithtown, New York) led the Bobcat offense all game long, either scoring or assisting on half of the Quinnipiac goals on the day, finishing with three points including her first career multi-goal game with two tallies.

Allison Kuhn (Kingsville, Maryland) notched two points on the day (one goal, one assist) to move to within one point of the team lead as the freshman has compiled 14 goals and five assists for 19 points, just one shy of Kathleen DeVito's team-leading total of 20.

On the defensive end, Kiera Kelly (West Islip, New York) once again led the way as the sophomore defender chipped in two ground balls and two caused turnovers on the day. Kelly moved her MAAC-leading caused turnover total to 28 through 12 games in 2016 while she continues to rank second in the conference with 40 ground balls (tied single-season career-high).

Monmouth came to play early as the Hawks jumped out to a commanding 4-0 lead less than seven minutes into the first half. Alexa Smith tallied two of her game-high five goals in the early going while Monmouth took the first four consecutive draw controls, a stat they dominated for the game leading the Bobcats, 18-5.

Even with the time of possession lopsided clearly in favor of the Hawks, the Bobcats were able to make the most of their limited opportunities as Alex Hlesciak (Lumberton, New Jersey) scored on a free position attempt to break up the 4-0 Monmouth run while Antonacci zipped one in from close range to make it 5-2 with 8:50 remaining in the first period.

After finding some momentum on offense and while holding Monmouth scoreless for over 11 straight minutes, the Hawks came up with a crucial answer to the Bobcat pressure as Monmouth scored six of the next seven goals to build an 11-3 lead just 24 seconds into the second half.

Quinnipiac would cut the gap to 13-5 with 20:52 remaining as Aileen Carey (Long Beach, New York) took a feed from Kuhn and scored her team-leading 17^th goal of the season. Antonacci followed Carey's goal up with her second of the day that pushed the margin back to eight but Monmouth's Marial Pierce helped ice the game away for the Hawks as she scored back-to-back goals to help salt away the 15-6 victory.

Pierce came in as a serious contender for MAAC Offensive Player of the Year and she did nothing but back that up throughout the course of play as she finished with five points (three goals, two assists), six ground balls, five draw controls and four caused turnovers in a sensational all-around performance.

The Bobcats finish the regular season with a crucial four-game set, three of which will be played at the QU Lacrosse Turf Complex, starting with a Wednesday home showdown against Iona at 3 PM.