WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – The Purple Eagles lacrosse team continued conference play with a back-and-forth contest against the Monmouth Hawks. A five-goal run by Monmouth midway through the second period sparked a late comeback as Niagara fell 15-11 Sunday afternoon at Monmouth Stadium.
 
Taylor Wolf led the attack for Niagara (5-5, 1-1 MAAC) with five points on three goals and two assists. Samantha Brill and Caroline Crump each tallied two goals, Jillian Ford and Rachel MacCheyne finished with one goal and one assist, and Molly Gray and Alexis Morales rounded out the scoring in Niagara's first loss since March 4, snapping a four-game winning streak. Andrea Francisco made four saves in goal for the Purple Eagles.
 
Niagara struck first as MacCheyne found Crump at the top of the crease for the game's first goal, but the Hawks (6-5, 2-0 MAAC) followed up with three goals in a span of 2:17 to take the 3-1 lead. From there, however, the Purple Eagles scored six of the next seven goals with two three-goal runs. A strong cut from Crump and a great feed from Jillian Ford led to the first of those goals at the 18:26 mark. Brill and Wolf followed up with their first goals of the game to put Niagara back in front at 4-3.
 
After Monmouth tied the game, the Purple Eagles rallied back to take a 7-4 lead. Morales put a free position shot wide of the net, but Wolf found Morales for another shot, and the freshman buried it for her 16th goal of the season. Nearly seven minutes passed before the game's next goal as Wolf and Brill put Niagara ahead 7-4 with 2:40 left until halftime. Monmouth was able to strike back with a late two-goal run, making the score 7-6 at halftime.
 
Wolf opened the second period with her third goal of the afternoon, igniting a 3-1 Niagara run to push the lead to 10-7. After a free-position goal for Monmouth, MacCheyne reestablished Niagara's two-goal lead off a feed from Wolf with 22 minutes to play. In a man-down situation for the Purple Eagles, Molly Gray found space in the middle of the field and ripped a shot past Monmouth goalkeeper Caroline Huelster.
 
The Hawks broke Niagara's momentum at that point, scoring three goals in 41 seconds to tie the game at 10-10 with goals from Kate Ryan, Alexa Smith, and Ashley Cross. Monmouth's Caroline Corbliss gave the Hawks their first lead since midway through the first period at the 15:24 mark before Smith scored again to make it 12-10 Monmouth.
 
Ford broke the Monmouth run with 11:43 to play and nearly tied the game on Niagara's next possession, but a save by Huelster and a clear from Monmouth led to a Hawks goal at the other end, making it 13-11 Monmouth. The Hawks tacked on two more goals in the closing three minutes as they held possession to take the win over Niagara.
 
Niagara's road trip continues Tuesday, April 5 at Marist, with the game between the Purple Eagles and Red Foxes set to begin at 4 p.m.
 
Stay connected with the Purple Eagles through social media. Follow Niagara Athletics on Twitter @NUPurpleEagles and for lacrosse updates, follow @NiagaraWLAX. Check in with the Purple Eagles on Facebook.com/PurpleEagles and on Instagram @NUPurpleEagles.