Sophomore Lauren Giordano scored the Skyhawks first two goals for a 2-0 halftime lead. (PHOTO BY Emily Reynolds)

Giordano nets pair of goals, Genovese with six saves for Skyhawks

EASTON, Mass. (October 4, 2013) – Stonehill College, ranked fourth in this week's Penn Monto/National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) Division II poll, ran its program-best season-opening winning streak to ten games with a 3-1 victory over Assumption College in Northeast-10 Conference field hockey action at Timothy J. Coughlin Memorial Field at W.B. Mason Stadium tonight.

Sophomore Lauren Giordano (Watertown, Mass./Watertown) scored a pair of goals to lead the way for Stonehill. Classmate Erika Kelly (Watertown, Mass./Watertown) added her NCAA Division II leading 19^th marker of the year, drawing her within a goal of Stonehill's single-season record of 20 set by Claire Hourihan, '10, in 2008 and matched in 2009. Kelly's Division II best 39 points is nine shy of Hourihan's single-season record of 48 set in 2008. Senior All-American Devin Ingersoll (Londonderry, N.H./Londonderry) and classmate Kelsey Davis (Gardner, Mass./Gardner) chipped in with assists for the Skyhawks.

Junior Elizabeth Genovese (Street, Md./North Harford) made four of her six saves in the first half to preserve the win for Stonehill. The Skyhawks finished with a 13-9 edge in shots and a 10-5 advantage for penalty corners, including 6-1 in the second half.

Junior Elizabeth Genovese made six saves to preserve the win tonight. (PHOTO BY Emily Reynolds)

Freshman Meghan Sullivan (Worcester, Mass./Notre Dame Academy) scored the lone goal for Assumption, with sophomore Taylor Chase (Holden, Mass./Wachusett Regional) collecting an assist. Senior Heather Philbrick (Kennebunkport, Maine/Kennebunk) stopped two shots in the Greyhounds cage.

Giordano gave Stonehill a two goal halftime lead with a pair of goals just 2:14 apart. She got the Skyhawks on the board at 22:19 when she broke in one on one with the Assumption goalkeeper, slipped past Philbrick and her shot was too strong for a pair of Greyhound defenders to corral off the line. Giordano doubled the lead at 24:33 by getting her stick on a drive from the top off the arc by Ingersoll on a penalty corner and redirecting it into the cage for her fifth goal of the season and third this week.

Assumption cut the lead in half 3:50 into the second half when Sullivan one timed a shot to the left of Genovese off a pass by Chase from the left side of the scoring area for her fifth goal of the year. Kelly restored Stonehill's two goal cushion just over eight minutes later with a lobbed shot over Philbrick off a Davis corner at 46:54. She now has a point in all nine of her games played this season, scoring a goal in eight of those nine games and 11 of her last 13 games played dating back to last season, posting a 13-game point streak.

Prior to the game, senior forward Kelly Gouveia (Dartmouth, Mass./Dartmouth) was presented the Fred C. Petti Female Academic Award for having the highest grade point average among all female Stonehill student-athletes for the 2012-13 academic year. She earned a 3.97 GPA for the year, including a perfect 4.0 during the spring semester.

Stonehill (10-0, 3-0 NE-10) is off until Wednesday when it hosts Saint Anselm College for a Northeast-10 matchup at W.B. Mason Stadium at 7 p.m. Assumption (4-7, 0-3 NE-10) doesn't return to action until Saturday, October 12, when it visits Saint Michael's College at 1 p.m.

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