Wheaton, IL – Sophomore Shawna Grabowski (Woodbridge, NJ, Woodbridge) scored the game's lone goal in the 52nd minute as the Montclair State women's soccer team won its season opener with a 1-0 victory over Carleton in the Bob Baptista Invitational at Wheaton College on Saturday.

Junior Gina Policastro (East Brunswick, NJ, East Brunswick) made four saves in recording her first shutout of the season as the Red Hawks (1-0) won their season opener for the fifth straight year. The contest became MSU' season opener after Friday's game with third-ranked Wheaton was canceled due to thunderstorms after 33 minutes of scoreless action.

MSU outshot Carleton 24-6 with 16 of those attempts coming in the second half as Montclair held a 16-2 advantage in shots over the final 45 minutes.  Still the Red Hawks found themselves in a scoreless match until the 51:39 mark when Grabowski blasted in a shot from in front of the net off a feed from sophomore Martina Landeka (Westfield, NJ, Westfield).

It was the fourth career game-winning goal for Grabowski, who had the decisive goals in MSU's wins over The College of New Jersey and Richard Stockton last year.

Montclair would get several more chances however Carleton's Mikala Coulombe came up with seven saves, including a stop in the 86th minute of an attempt by Kaila Fasano (Westwood, NJ, Westwood), who then caught an unlucky break two minutes later as her shot hit the post.

Meanwhile the Montclair defense was dominating as it did not allow a shot in the second half until less than 10 minutes remaining in the game.

Policastro earned her 18th career shutout which tied her with Leah Tepperman (2006-09) and Kristin Kuhmann (2003-2006) for second place on the all-time MSU list.

The Red Hawks return to New Jersey and face Purchase College in their home opener on Wednesday, September 4 at 8:00 pm.