Orono, ME - Junior Stephanie Gardiner scored three goals to lead the Black Bears of Maine to a 7-1 non-conference victory over the Hofstra Pride at the Maine Field Hockey Complex Sunday afternoon. Maine, which posted its fifth consecutive victory, improved to 13-4 on the season while the Pride, which dropped their third straight contest, fall to 6-10.

The Black Bears jumped on the Pride and goalie Kaitlyn De Turo early, building a 4-0 lead after 12:07. Gardiner opened the scoring 4:14 into the game scoring her ninth goal of the year, off a rebound of a penalty corner for a 1-0 lead. Just 2:10 later, junior Kelly Newton tallied her 17th goal of the season on a flick over De Turo's left shoulder for a 2-0 advantage. Gardiner would score her second and third of the game over the next six minutes, firing a bullet from 17 yards after a long pass from Cassandra Mendonca at the 8:54 mark, and a tip-in from in front of a penalty corner shot with Alexa Binnendijk and Mallory Anderson assisting. The Black Bears outshot the Pride, 10-2 in the first 35 minutes with De Turo making four of her five saves in the first period.

Maine boosted its lead to 5-0 at the 8:24 mark of the second half as senior Brittney Cummings scored her fifth of the year, tipping in a Kallie Aldus shot.

The Pride, who outshot Maine, 9-6 in the second half, busted up the shutout with less than 15 minutes to play in the contest as Arielle Williams scored her 12th goal of the season off a pass from Micaela Gallagher, following a penalty corner, to close the deficit to 5-1. But the Black Bears tacked on two more goals in the final nine minutes of the game as junior Jocelyn Mitchell scored her 16th of the year, from Maire Dineen at the 61:46 mark, and junior Courtney Glynn tallied her second of the year, from Mitchell, with 3:56 remaining in the game.

Maine outshot the Pride, 16-11, in the contest while Hofstra had seven penalty corners to the Black Bears six. Junior goalie Brittany Fleck played the first half for Maine before giving way to sophomore Alicia Frisch (5 saves) for the second half. De Turo made five saves and allowed five goals in 47:06 before being replaced by junior Amanda Heyde, who finished the game and made two saves and allowed two goals.

The Pride close out their season next weekend with home games against Delaware on Friday (Oct. 29) at 3 p.m., and Towson on Sunday (Oct. 31) at 1 p.m. at the Hofstra Field Hockey Stadium.

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