Montclair, NJ – The Montclair State University women's lacrosse team surged past Misericordia 16-8 on Tuesday night at Sprague Field.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Red Hawks (5-3) broke the scoring open within the opening two minutes, as CARA MCCARTNEY struck for an unassisted goal. After Joey Grotkopt notched a save off a free position shot on the following possession, NORAH MONAGHAN found KAELEY SEK for a goal to double the advantage a minute and a half later. Sek notched her second goal of the contest a few minutes later on a find from Chelsea stack, but the Cougars tallied their first goal of the contest at the 6:18 mark of the first to cut the margin to two. Grotkopf notched another save down the stretch of the frame, and Montclair pushed their lead back to three as JOELLE D'ANGELO scored with 30 seconds left to make the score 4-1 after 15 minutes of play.
• Misericordia scored the opening marker of the second quarter following a yellow card from the Red Hawks, but Montclair countered with back-to-back goals from AMRA LUKOVIC over the next four minutes to push the lead to four. NORAH MONAGHAN scored off a free position shot, and Lukovic tallied her third of the night to increase the home lead to 8-2 with 6:39 remaining in the half. The Cougars rattled off the final two markers of the half to make the deficit four at the half.
• Montclair opened the second half with the first four shots leading to a goal from Sek off a feed from Stack. On the ensuing possession, Stack caused a turnover that led to another marker from Lukovic to increase the total for the Red Hawks to double digits. As the quarter approached its halfway mark, McCartney scored following a yellow card from the Cougars, and Stack struck again to make the score 12-4 with 3:32 on the clock in the frame. Misericordia tallied the final goal of the quarter and the first two of the fourth quarter to come within four with six minutes remaining in the contest.
• Lukovic won the ensuing draw control, leading to a Sek goal off a feed from Stack to end the run for the visitors. DANIELLE DE JESUS forced a turnover on the next possession, and Lukovic scored following the clear attempt to add to the advantage. Stack gathered the next draw control, and found D'Angelo for another tally to push the margin to seven. Monaghan scored in the game's waning moments to make the final advantage eight for the home side.

INSIDE THE RESULTS

• Lukovic notched a season-high five goals to lead the way for Montclair. It also marked her fourth hat trick of the campaign and her third straight.
• Sek recorded her third consecutive hat trick, as she finished with a season-high four goals.
• Grotkopf finished with six saves for the night and recorded her 300th career save. She currently ranks sixth in program history, 15 away from Kristen Kuhmann for fifth among the Montclair ranks.

FROM THE FIELD

"I'm really happy with our performance tonight. We played hard all four quarters, and I'm very proud of Joey for reaching 300 career saves!" - Head Coach Nicol Parcelluzzi

UP NEXT

The Red Hawks will host Marywood for Senior Day on Saturday, March 29. First draw from Sprague Field is scheduled for 1:00 PM.