WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ- Monmouth University's Women's Lacrosse team improved to 2-0 on the season with a home-opening win over Holy Cross (1-2) on Saturday afternoon. The Monmouth defense stifled the Crusaders , causing 12 turnovers and holding Holy Cross scoreless for over 13 minutes to start the game. The unit was paced by senior Monica Cortes (Miller Place, NY/Miller Place) who had four caused turnovers and five ground balls while fifth-year defender Mackenzie Rendich (San Ramon, CA/California High School) had a trio for forced miscues. Offensively, Ally Turturro (Sound Beach, NY/Miller Place) had three goals while Nicole Ceraso (Massapequa, NY/Plainedge) had four points on a pair of goals and assists. The Hawks struck just 1:32 into the game on a Turturro goal before the two teams had a back-and-forth scoreless battle for the next 14 minutes. Holy Cross tied it up briefly but Turturro sparked a five-goal run that also featured a pair from junior Chloe Novak (Landsdale, PA/North Penn) that put the Hawks up 6-1 with 5:42 left in the first stanza. Holy Cross tallied two goals in the final 2:29 to cut the MU lead to three heading into the break. Holy Cross got the first goal of the second half before Ceraso recorded back to back markers pushing the MU lead to 8-4. The Hawks went up 10-6 on an Allison Stofregen (Ellicott City, MD/Notre Dame Prep) goal, her fourth point of the afternoon. The Crusaders tallied a pair of goals in the final 1:32 but the Hawks sealed it when Megan Hart won the final draw and ran out the final 70 seconds. Notes & Quotes "I think the difference between the first and second game really show where you are as a team. I was really happy to see improvements that we focused on this week during in practice and see those changes in the game. It was exciting to see momentum and changes moving forward as we go through the start the season." Monmouth Head Coach Jordan Trautman "I was really excited about how they performed today. I thought they were really composed, we talked about control and setting up in a 1v1 defense this week. We were in a man-to-man defense and everybody took responsibilities. We had a couple of key matchups and we wanted to hold those players to four points and we held them to three total. We were really happy with the collective and individual effort." Trautman on the play of the defense "I think the whole defensive unit did a really good job, we played together the whole game. We just stuck to our basics, held steady and moved our feet and the caused turnovers just game." Senior Monica Cortes Stofregen's four points is a career-high for the sophomore. She assisted on three and scored one late in the second half The team is 2-0 for the first time under Jordan Trautman and 2-0 for the first time since the 2015 season and just the fourth time since 2006 Ceraso now has 73 career assists – just two behind fourth place all-time at Monmouth (Stacy Sydlo) The teams combined for 10 yellow cards in the contest Turturro registered her 50th career point and 47th goal in the contest It is Turturro's 13th multiple goal game of her career and the second straight hat trick of the season. She has scored three or more goals seven times in 35 career games Numbers Crunch Monmouth was 3-of-8 on free position goals while Holy Cross was 2-of-3 Each team had 20 turnovers in the contest and the two teams split the 20 draw controls Brager finished with 10 saves in the contest, including eight in the second half MU outshot Holy Cross 15-6 in the first half and 28-25 during the contest Keely Conors had two goals on six shots to lead the Crusaders Sophie Ochs had eight saves, including seven in the first half to keep Holy Cross in the game early Up Next The Hawks will hit the road for the first of three contests, starting with Sacred Heart at 3PM on Wednesday.