Montclair, NJ (4/29/06) – Junior attack BRIANNA GILLIN scored a career-high eight goals, assisted on four others and was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player as top-seeded Montclair State rolled to a 22-10 victory over No. 2 seed Manhattanville College in the inaugural Skyline Conference Women's Lacrosse Championship Game at Sprague Field on Saturday evening.  

NICOLE ROSELLE had four goals for the Red Hawks (13-3), who captured their first conference title in program history. MSU played women's lacrosse from 1980-95 before the program was put on hiatus for 11 years, returning in 1997. The win also helped Montclair overcome consecutive losses to Stevens in the 2004 and 2005 Knickerbocker Women's Lacrosse Conference championship games.

MSU will now wait to see if it is selected for the NCAA Division III Tournament. The Skyline Conference does not receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament which puts Montclair State among the teams in contention for the three "Pool B" bid given to independent teams and conferences without and automatic qualifier. Bids for the NCAA Tournament will be announced on Monday, May 8, with ECAC selections announced later that day.

Cory Alcron had five goals and an assist for the Valiants, who ended their season at 7-9 and reached the conference tournament title game for the second time in four years. Manhattanville lost to Stevens in the 2003 Knickerbocker Conference final.

ANN DAILY, who finished with three goals, and Alcorn traded scores as the team were tied at 2-2 three minutes in. Gillin would score her first and Daily her third with 19:52 left as the Red Hawks took a 5-2 advantage. Gillin collected her second just over two minutes later, but the Valiants closed the gap to 5-4 with 15:47 to play on goals by Jessica Zimmerman and Alcorn.

Montclair would then go on a five-goal run over the next six minutes as five different players scored. BETHANY BLAINE got the ball rolling and Gillin netted her third with 11:13 left. JENNIFER TANIS made it 8-4 off a free position shot with 10:42 to go and Roselle answered eight seconds later as Montclair took a five-goal advantage. MARYKATE DIBENEDETTO capped off the run at 9:54.

Roselle would add one more before the half expired and SHAUNA BROCKLEBANK connected on the final for Montclair as the Red Hawks led 12-6 at halftime.

Roselle, Brocklebank and Gillin each scored an Montclair opened the second half with the first three scores to push the lead to 15-6 with 26:38 to play. Abbe Grimes would get a goal back for the Valiants with just over 26 minutes remaining, however, Gillin scored three straight and Tanis two consecutive goals over the next nine minutes to boost the MSU lead to 20-7.

Kristin Kuhmann had six saves for Montclair State. Tanis finished with three goals and an assist while Brocklebank had two goals. DiBenedetto added six draws and three ground balls as the Red Hawks outshot Manhattanville, 42-21.

Katie Hand had eight saves for Manhattanville in the first 44:03 before giving way to Ashley Trimble who collected three in the final 16 minutes of the contest.