Upper Montclair, NJ (9/25/02) – The Montclair State University women's soccer team opened its 2002 New Jersey Athletic Conference home campaign tonight at Sprague Field with a 6-0 win against Rutgers Newark. Montclair is now 3-3-2 overall (1-0-1 NJAC), while Rutgers Newark falls to 1-5 (0-2 NJAC).

Sophomore forward STEPHANIE SABALIAUSKAS (Edison, NJ/Mt. St. Mary Academy) opened the scoring at 17:43 of the first half for the host Red Hawks, scoring her fifth goal of the season after taking a short pass from freshman forward KELLY DUTKO (Hamilton, NJ/Steinert) and racing in to chip the ball over Scarlet Raider freshman goalkeeper ASHLEY WOODRUFF (North Plainfield, NJ/North Plainfield). MSU, which outshot Rutgers, 15-3, in the first half, thus snapped a scoreless string of just over four games and more than 387 minutes that began with a 3-0 loss to Union (NY) College back on Sept. 14. Junior midfielder JESSICA KOCH (Blackwood, NJ/Triton) made it 2-0 for Montclair when she sailed a 40-foot shot from the right wing past Woodruff and into the far side of the net. Sabaliauskas assisted on the goal at 24:56.

MSU erupted for a 5-0 lead before the second half was 12 minutes old on three consecutive goals by sophomore forward SHIRAH ODEH (Pompton Lakes, NJ/Pompton Lakes) in a span of 4:57. Koch then made it 6-0 at 59:39 to close out the scoring. Montclair senior goalkeeper STEPHANIE ROMANKO (N. Brunswick, NJ/N. Brunswick) finished with three saves in recording her fourth shutout this fall and the 37th of her career. Woodruff finished with six saves before being replaced by sophomore KNAR PETROSSIAN (Fort Lee, NJ/Fort Lee) with 31:05 remaining. Petrossian finished with two saves.