Hartford, CT – The Montclair State women's lacrosse team saw its season come to an end on Wednesday evening as the Red Hawks fell to top-ranked and defending national champion Trinity College, 17-8 in the first round of the NCAA Division III Women's Lacrosse Championship at Sheppard Field.

MSU finished the year at 15-5, tying the school record for victories in a season. The Red Hawks were making their fourth straight and seventh overall appearance in the NCAAs, earning an automatic bid to the tournament by capturing the Skyline Conference title on April 27 with a 16-13 win over Farmingdale State.

Trinity led wire-to-wire, wasting no time getting on the board on the first shot of the game's first possession by junior attacker Shea Kusiak (Longmeadow, Mass.) 22 seconds into the contest to ignite a 4-0 run.  Hayes scored 2:04 into the game, followed by a goal by senior tri-captain midfielder Megan Leonhard (Summit, N.J.), and Hayes fed senior attacker Hadley Duncan (Rye, N.Y.) at the 22:15 mark to complete the spurt. 

Sophomore midfielder Jenna Bussiere (Dayton, NJ, South Brunswick) netted the first Montclair State goal 12:08 into the first half, and Hayes traded goals with Red Hawk senior tri-captain attacker Kailee Beal (Succasunna, NJ, Roxbury) to make the score, 5-2, just after the midpoint of the opening period.  The Bantams rattled off five of the last six goals before the break, including the last two by Hayes.  Trinity first-year midfielder Martha Griffin (Exeter, N.H.) assisted a streaking Hayes for the last tally of the first half with one second on the clock.

Duncan scored from Hayes to open the second half, answered by the second of Beal's three scores in the game, but rookie attacker Molly Cox (Norwell, Mass.) scored twice and Hayes once on free positions for a 14-4 Bantam lead with 16:24 left to play.  The Red Hawks outscored the Bantams, 4-3, over the last half of the second half, including three Montclair State goals off assists by sophomore attacker Tierney Conlon (Caldwell, NJ, Caldwell).

Trinity outshot Montclair State, 33-13, won the ground ball battle, 16-10, and won 16 of 26 draws while forcing 23 turnovers and committing 16.  The teams combined for eight free-position goals in 17 tries, and Trinity scored three goals with an extra player.  Leonhard scored four times for Trinity, while both Cox and Duncan had hat tricks, and senior attacker Kaitlin Hildebrand (Berwyn, Pa.) finished with a goal and two assists for the Trinity offense.  Hayes added three ground balls and three draw controls to her eight points, while senior tri-captain defender Mallory Hinman (Longmeadow, Mass.) collected three ground balls, three draw controls, and a game-high three caused turnovers, and senior tri-captain goalie Olivia Whitney (Danvers, Mass.) made a pair of saves including a point-blank stop late in the first half. 

Conlon finished with four assists for the Red Hawks setting a new Montclair single-season record with 79. She also finished with 133 points, another MSU single-season record. Conlon, the NJAC Co-Attack and Skyline Conference Player of the Year, has 247 points in two seasons at MSU which is fourth all-time.

Junior midfielder Kelly Schoneveld (Denville, NJ, Morris Knolls) added two goals and one assist to go with her game-high seven draw controls.  Montclair State senior backstop Tiffani Henderson (Landing, NJ, Roxbury) made 10 saves ending her career with 588 saves, second all-time in MSU history.

Beal closed out her career becoming the second player in Montclair State history to score 200 goals in a career finishing with 201 as she joined Jodi Gangemi (2000-03) as the only players to accomplish that feat. Beal also finished third all-time in points with 272 and is fifth in career assists (71). She also holds the record for career draw controls at 321.