Montclair State University Athletics

The Montclair State women’s soccer team is the youngest of the 17 sports that University has to offer. Established as a varsity sport in 1990, the program has had its share of outstanding and talented players but never a member of the Hall of Fame, until now. In the early portion of the 2000s, the Montclair State was one the rise in the realm of women’s soccer. Coming off an ECAC Championship in 2000, Stephanie Sabaliasukas came to MSU the following year and became one of the foundation pieces for the greatest stretch of success the program has seen. In her sophomore season, she scored 13 goals and posted 30 points as she helped Montclair State to the NJAC Championship Game for the first time. She would earn All-NJAC First-Team honors and became just the third player to be selected to the National Soccer Coaches Association All-Region Team as she landed on the First-Team. The next season, Sabaliauskas duplicated her scoring totals, including six-game winning tallies as Montclair State won the NJAC regular-season title and advanced to the conference tournament title game for the second straight year. She would be named the NJAC Offensive Player of the Year and registered her second consecutive All-Region honor as she was selected to the NSCAA Third Team. In 2004, Sabaliauskas sparked a late-season run by the Red Hawks as for the third consecutive year they reached the NJAC Championship Game against The College of New Jersey. But after suffering two tough losses to the Lions the previous seasons, Montclair turned the tables on the Lions winning the conference crown in penalty kicks. The championship would send Montclair State to the NCAA Division III Women’s Soccer Tournament for the first time in program history. Sabaliauskas would earn her third straight All-NJAC First Team honor as she double digits in goals for the third time, netting 10 along with five assists. Sabaliauskas finished as the third all-time leading scorer in program history with 95 points and she was third in goals scored (41) and game-winning goals (11) at the time of her graduation. But her exploits on the field tell only half of the career of this outstanding student-athlete. She is one of only 10 athletes in Montclair State history to earn All-Academic honors from the prestigious CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America program as she was selected to the District II All-Academic Squad Second Team in 2003. Following her playing career, Sabaliauskas was named the Division III Female Athlete of the Year by the Collegiate Athletic Administrator’s of New Jersey (CAANJ), which awards the honors to the student-athlete who excels not only on the playing field, but in the classroom and as a member of the campus community.