April 5, 2008

QUEENS, N.Y. - The St. John's women's soccer team continued its strong efforts during its spring campaign and won its second-straight contest, defeating Monmouth, 2-0, on Friday night at Belson Stadium.

"I am happy that the girls saw the results of their hard work over the course of this week," said head women's soccer coach Ian Stone. "We possessed the ball well, but what I was most impressed with was the improvement our team made defensively from our last game. For us to prevent a 2007 NCAA Tournament team from having any challenging shots on goal for over 90 minutes is quite an accomplishment. It was an excellent team performance."

Sophomore Nicole Canning gave the Red Storm the early 1-0 lead 40 minutes into the game. On a quick STJ counter-attack, fellow classmate Amanda Santos played a perfect through ball to Canning, who placed the ball into the bottom corner of the goal.

In the 69th minute, St. John's doubled its lead when Kelly McConnell slipped past two defenders and slotted the ball past the goalie into the back of the net. Sarah McGrath made a long pass, and Brittany Cavarra created space in the middle of the Hawks defense, while Courtney Curby fed McConnell the ball and then scored. Curby was credited with the assist.

The Red Storm will return to action on Sunday, April 13, when it travels to Lancaster Mass., to face Boston College at 11 a.m. and Central Connecticut State at 3 p.m.