Sacred Heart and Monmouth Face-off Sunday - Game Notes
4/8/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
April 8, 2006
Complete Sacred Heart vs. Monmouth Game Notes in PDF Format
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Pioneers and Hawks - Battle of NEC Unbeatens... The Pioneers welcome the Monmouth Hawks to Campus Field Sunday afternoon as the last two unbeaten teams in the Northeast Conference will look to stake claim to sole possession of first-place in the league standings. SHU is riding high after an 8-7 win over defending NEC champion Mount St. Mary's on Friday as they get ready for a skilled Hawks team. Monmouth is 4-0 in the NEC and have won four-straight after handing Quinnipiac their first NEC loss on Friday, 12-11.
The Series... Monmouth leads the all-time series, 8-1. The Hawks won the first meeting, 15-11, in 1997 and then rattled off six-straight in the series before SHU collected their only win in 2003, a 15-13 win at home. The Hawks posted 13-4 (2004) and 15-5 (2005) wins at home over the past two years.
Up Next... Sacred Heart will make the western Pennsylvania road trip next weekend stopping at Robert Morris on Thursday, April 13th and St. Francis-PA on Saturday, April 15th.
Last Meeting with Monmouth... The Pioneers lost a 15-5 decision at Monmouth University on April 17, 2005. The Hawks built a 7-0 lead with 7:05 left in the first half to take control en route to their 10th-straight win. Sophomore Heather Gureckis finally stopped the bleeding for the Pioneers, scoring her first of the day with 4:47 left. After another Monmouth goal, Gureckis struck again at 1:58, but a Hawk goal just 47 seconds later gave them a commanding 9-2 lead at the half. Monmouth out shot the Pioneers 16-9 in the half and converted both of their free position attempts. Monmouth rattled off the first four goals of the second half to extend the lead to 13-2 with 18:04 remaining in the contest. Sacred Heart went on a 3-0 surge before the Hawks closed the game with a pair of tallies. The Hawks were led by Carolyn Raveia with four goals and two assists. Freshman Megan Nutter added three goals and two assists. Monmouth out shot Sacred Heart 31-19 and owned a 16-6 edge in draw controls.
Scouting the Hawks... Monmouth comes in 6-6 overall and 4-0 in the NEC after a 12-11 win at Quinnipiac on Friday afternoon. The Hawks have won four-straight starting with a 13-5 win over Villanova and continuing with league wins over St. Francis-PA, Robert Morris and the Bobcats. The Hawk's Jeanette Scott is the leading scorer in the NEC with 31 goals and 27 assists for 58 points. Teammate Katie Degen adds 20 goals and 11 assists to the mix while Erica Evangelisti (26 pts) and Megan Nutter (20) round out the team's 20 point scorers. Monica Johnson has made 142 saves in goal for the Hawks.
Last Time Out... Sacred Heart goalie Candice Celebre made 11 saves including the game clincher with 0.7 seconds remaining as she turned away Katie Falatach to send the Pioneers home with an 8-7 Northeast Conference victory over Mount St. Mary's. Sacred Heart finished the day four-of-seven on free position shots and got four goals from junior Brianna Bubeck in the win. The Pioneers led, 4-2, into halftime and came out of the break and built their biggest lead, 5-2, off the stick of Bubeck. The Mount offense found their legs and began a four goal run to take their first lead of the game, 6-5. The lead was short lived as SHU buried two goals in the span of 1:21 to go up 7-6. SHU dug in defensively and had a chance to run out the clock on offense but a turnover with 1:07 left gave the Mount life. After a scramble in front, Kathleen Rossetti emerged with the ball and bounced a shot in with 15 ticks left to pull her team to within one, 8-7. The Mount took the ensuing draw and set up for one last attempt. Falatch was able to draw the Sacred Heart foul with just 0.7 seconds left and she set up just inside the circle to take on last ditch shot. Falatch let fire low and hard at the whistle and the ball got to net but SHU's Celebre smothered it as the horn sounded to preserve the Pioneer victory.
History... This is the Pioneer's eighth year of competition in the Northeast Conference. Sacred Heart has qualified for the NEC Tournament four times and posts a 74-63 Division I record. The Pioneers have posted 10 wins in each of the last three years and have not had a losing season since 1998.
