Buena Vista, FL (3/10/03) -- The Montclair State women's lacrosse team opened their 2003 season with a 12-6 loss to Western New England College on Saturday afternoon. The contest, the first for new MSU head coach Beth Gottung, was played at the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex.

Senior JODI GANGEMI (Fairfield, NJ/West Essex) scored three goals and junior CATHY HOMIEK (Toms River, NJ/Toms River South) added two goals and three assists as the Red Hawks fell behind early, 3-0.

Western New England opened the scoring 56 seconds into the contest as Whitney Boucher scored off an assist from Alyson Nowell. Christine Pfister made it a 2-0 lead at the 3:23 mark and Western New England took a 3-0 lead at 9:46 as Boucher scored her second goal, unassisted.

The Red Hawks (0-1) finally got on the board at the 12:26 mark of the first half as Homiek scored from an assist by Gangemi. However, Western New England scored the next three goals to take a 6-1 advantage en route to a 7-3 lead at intermission.

ANGELA GIAMPINO (Clark, NJ/Arthur L. Johnson) had the other goal for MSU. Sophomore LISA SMICKLO (Toms River, NJ/Toms River East) had 17 saves for Montclair State, which was outshot in the game, 29-14.

Tara Cushman had four saves for Western New England.