Maine Opens America East Schedule with Upset of No. 20 Monmouth

Friday, September 24

Orono, ME

3:00 PM

University of Maine

(3-5)

Monmouth University

(5-3)

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Monmouth	0	0	2	1	3
Maine	0	1	2	2	5

Photo by: Tyler Neville

Maine Opens America East Schedule with Upset of No. 20 Monmouth

9/24/2021 6:12:00 PM | Field Hockey

Box Score

Two goals from Sulinski and Meader lead the way

By: By Kevin Moore

ORONO - The Maine Black Bears got off to a hot start in game one of their conference opening weekend, as the gusting wind and rain in Orono couldn't put a damper on the Bears as Maine took a 5-3 victory over No. 20 Monmouth.

The Bears and Hawks took the first quarter to feel each other out-back and forth play and early game jitters resulted in one Maine shot and a scoreless opening frame. In the second quarter, the action heated up, as big saves from both Maine's Mia Borley and Monmouth's Ally Tarantino kept the score at zero.

In front of Borley, the Maine defensive core stayed strong and kept Monmouth scoreless in the first half. Senior Hannah Abbott and Sophomore Poppy Lambert were repeatedly stuffing the Hawk's offensive push and scooping the ball out from the vicinity of Borley, as the game looked to be headed for a scoreless tie at the halftime break.

The Black Bears struck, however, with 4:35 remaining in the first half as Brooke Sulinski buried her eighth goal of the season after an impressive lone rush. Maine would go into the half leading 1-0 and ahead 3-1 in shots on goal.

Both offenses waited no time to catch fire in the second half, at 14:32 of the third quarter Maine would double their lead on Sulinski's second goal of the game. This time it was set up by a beautiful Sydney Meader assist. Just over a minute later, at 13:11, freshman Lorane Vanneste got the Hawks on the board. Monmouth would strike again to even the game up at 2-2 on Annick Van Lange's goal at 10:54.

At 6:51 Tarantino and an ensemble of Monmouth defenders made a miraculous effort to keep the ball from crossing the goal line and the game remained knotted up. The stalemate would not last though, as senior Chloe Walton would do it herself with just under 2 minutes remaining in the third quarter, scoring a remarkable backhanded top-shelf goal to take a 3-2 lead.

Walton wasn't done producing, at 13:23 of the fourth quarter she set up Sydney Meader for her first of the afternoon. When it rains it pours, as the same duo would take another blow to Monmouth two minutes later for Meader's second, Maine's third unanswered goal, and a 5-2 lead.

The Hawks' hope stayed alive as freshman Jess Tucker scored at 8:48 to bring them within two goals of the surging Black Bears. Monmouth would play the last five minutes with Tarantino pulled, but it was not enough to get two past senior Mia Borley before the final buzzer sounded. The Black Bears won with a final score of 5-3, also leading in shots 11-5.

With the win, Maine improves to 4-5 overall on the season and starts America East play 1-0. They'll be back in action this Sunday in Orono for another America East Conference showdown, this time with the reigning conference champion Stanford Cardinal.