Upper Montclair, NJ (11/13/02) - Junior forward SARAH LEVINE (Pompton Plains, NJ/Pequannock) scored once and assisted on another as fifth-seeded Montclair State blanked No. 4 seed Juniata College, 3-0, in the opening round of the 2002 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Mid-Atlantic Championship at Sprague Field on Wednesday evening.

Montclair (12-5), the defending champion, will advance to the "Final Four" of the tournament, which will be played on Saturday, November 16 at Sprague Field. MSU is the highest remaining seed in the tournament and will face No. 8 seed RPI in one semifinal game on Saturday. RPI topped No. 1 William Smith, 2-1 in double overtime. In the other semifinal, No. 6 seed and 2000 champion, St. Lawrence will face No. 7 seed Misericordia. Game times are set for 6:30 pm and 8:30 on Saturday. The championship game will be held on Sunday, November 17.

Montclair State got all the scoring it would need with 3:08 to play in the first half as Levine notched her ninth goal of the season, taking a give-and-go pass from LISA SMICKLO (Toms River, NJ/Toms River East) and slapping a shot in from five yards out past Juniata goalkeeper ANDREA WAY (Fair Haven, VT/Fair Haven Union). In the second half, Levine put a shot on goal that was deflected by NICOLE PUSO (Rochelle Park, NJ/Hackensack) into the goal for a 2-0 MSU advantage three minutes into the period. It was the first goal of the season for Puso. The Red Hawks final goal came with 21:20 to play as Jen Carbonaro (Howell, NJ/Howell) scored on a penalty stroke. Montclair's

TRISHA WINKLE (Forked River, NJ/Lacey Township) made one save and combined with backup ROBYN APICELLI (Oceanport, NJ/Shore Regional) on the shutout as MSU avenged a 1-0 loss to Juniata at home back on November 2nd. Way had seven saves for the Eagles (13-8), who were outshot in the games, 16-4.