Monmouth University's women's lacrosse team (3-1) suffered its first setback of the 2020 season falling to Army West Point (4-0) in a 12-9 contest at home on Wednesday afternoon. After an early scoring barrage by Army, the Monmouth defense clamped down and allowed just seven goals in the final 55 minutes of the contest. Senior Nicole Ceraso (Massapequa, NY/Plainedge) had five points, including four goals in the contest. Senior Stephanie Delliturri (Ringoes, NY/Hunterdon Central) had 10 saves in net for the Hawks including six in the second half. Junior Caroline Bleck (Farmingdale, NY/Farmingdale) scored the first goal of the second half to cut the Black Knight lead to two before the two teams traded goals over the opening 12 minutes of the half. With 18:07 remaining Army's Cameron Manor scored the first of three unanswered Black Knight goals that push the lead to 12-7 for the visitors with 13:28 left. Monmouth scored the final two goals of the half but didn't have enough time to complete the comeback. The first half was a game of runs with Army West Point jumping out to a 5-0 lead after scoring consecutive goals to start the first 4:54 of the game. The Hawks defense buckled down and the offense grinded out goals, tying the game at 5-5 on Ceraso's third goal of the first frame with 5:37 to play. The Black Knights responded, scoring three more, including one from the stick of Kathleen Sullivan with six seconds remaining to give her squad an 8-5 lead going into the break. NOTES & QUOTES "Obviously we are disappointed with the loss but I think today was a good indication on where we are mentally. We have been harping on our mental toughness and although the outcome was not what we wanted we definitely took a step in our program with our mental toughness. I'm really proud of that. Now we need to make sure we are matching our physical play with that mentality." Monmouth Head Coach Jordan Trautman "I feel like the last 55 minutes of the game we were more focused on ourselves rather than what they were doing. At the start of the game we were much more reactive to what they were doing, we were waiting to see what Army was going to do. After we went down we had nothing to lose so we just focused on ourselves and went out and played." Trautman on coming back in the game "We definitely felt the energy on the field and if we could have had a couple better clears and a couple more made shots that is the difference between a win and a loss. We are now turning our focus on to Lehigh." Senior Megan Hart on bouncing back against Lehigh The Hawks were outshot for the first time all season, 36-29 Rachel Mills had a pair of goals but also four draw controls in the setback Army is now 3-0 in the series Coming into the game Bleck, the reigning MAAC Offensive Player of the Week, was ranked sixth in the nation in goals per game at 4.67 Monmouth's offense leads the country in shots per game and is third in shots on goal per game NUMBERS CRUNCH Monmouth's defense forced two shot clock violations in the contest Each team committed 13 turnovers in the contest Monmouth was 3 of 9 from the 8 meter while Army was 2 for 5 Army edged the Hawks 12-11 in draw controls Black Knight goalie Maddie Burns had 14 saves in the win Manor had four goals to lead Army UP NEXT Monmouth heads to Lehigh University to face the Mountain Hawks at 12 PM on Saturday.