Montclair, NJ – Junior midfielder Neva Richardson scored 19 minutes into the contest which turned out to be the only goal as Smith College knocked off Montclair State 1-0 in the first round of the NCAA Division III Field Hockey Championship at Sprague Field on Wednesday evening.

Freshman goalkeeper Channy Cornell stopped eight shots for the Pioneers (15-7), who now advance to the second round on Saturday, November 10 in Maryland at Salisbury University. Smith will face Tufts University at 2:00 pm.

Montclair State, making its third straight NCAA Tournament appearance and eighth overall finished the season at 15-4.

The Red Hawks outshot the Pioneers 14-2 with one of those two Smith shots coming three minutes into game. Alex Larosee fired a shot off a penalty corner that was stopped by the Red Hawks' Nicole
Andriani. Montclair got the next three chances however an AMBER HASLETT shot at the five-minute mark went wide with another going off the mark in the 14^th minute. A follow-up by KELLIE VIZZUSO was stopped by Cornell keeping the game scoreless.

Smith would get its other shot at 18:12 and it turned out to be the most important of the game. Larosee flipped a pass from the right side to the middle of the circle. Richardson corralled the pass before firing a reverse shot inside the right post for a 1-0 lead. It was Richardson's third goal of the season.

The rest of the shots in the half then belonged to MSU. The Pioneers blocked two with Cornell making a save at 26:57 against ELIZABETH CIMILLUCA. Cornell came up with three more in the final nine minutes including a stop versus Vizzuso with exactly a minute remaining before halftime.

The solid defensive effort by Smith continue in the second half as all four attempts by the Red Hawks came up empty. Cimilluca's attempt was blocked by a defender early in the period before Cornell came up with back-to-back stops against Haslett and VICTORIA ROSSI with 23 minutes left. Cornell made one final stop with 7:56 left as the Pioneers killed off a penalty corner with three minutes to play.

In addition to its shot margin, Montclair also took seven of the nine penalty corners in the contest.