“We came together at halftime,” Ahern said. “We said ‘OK, we need to pick this up because we’re a better team than them, and we know we are.’”

The pep talk paid off. Two days after being shutout by Syracuse 4-0, the MSU field hockey team (2-3 overall) recovered from a halftime deficit to win against Monmouth (0-3 overall) on Sunday, 4-2.

For a team that has struggled with consistency early in the season, the win over Monmouth provided a boost in confidence.

“It was really crucial to come back and win today, just because we didn’t start off the season that great,” senior midfielder Adelle Lever said. “We needed to get a (win) under our belt so we can get some momentum going so that we’re not second-guessing ourselves on if we can win or not.”

MSU scored the first goal 7:32 minutes into the game when Lever scored on a redirection from the left side off of an assist from fellow senior midfielder Katherine Jamieson.

Monmouth answered back 14 minutes into the game when junior forward Amanda Schoenfeld scored on a breakaway from the right side from a long assist from freshman defender Erin Hoag. The Hawks grabbed the lead at the 26:10 mark when senior defender Alex Carrol scored off a corner play.

“We came out in the first half, but we were lacking a little bit of fight getting to those 50-50 balls,” Jamieson said. “In the second half, we really came together as a team, pumped each other up.”

The tides turned for the Spartans in the second half.

Freshman back Adrea Donaldson tied the game with a goal from the right side at the 47:03 mark off of an assist from sophomore forward Victoria Radwell.

MSU iced the cake with a goal on a breakaway from Jamieson 54:42 minutes into play, and later with an unassisted goal that saw junior forward Allie Ahern dribble down the field.

“(In the) second half, we started to pull ourselves and the goals eventually came and fell for us,” head coach Helen Knull said. “We got some offensive output, and Friday that was a struggle.”

The Spartans hope the victory will provide momentum for their weekend trip to Princeton, N.J. and Newark, Del. MSU will play reigning champion Princeton Friday and Delaware Sunday.

A full week’s worth of practices are scheduled for MSU to help prepare for what is sure to be a challenging matchup.

“Princeton are last year’s reigning champs, so it’s going to be a tough one, Knull said. “We have to come and play as a unit from the get-go.

If we play our own hockey, we can make things happen.”