New Paltz forward Hannah Ackerman scored the lone goal as the Hawks downed the Saints 1-0 on Sunday afternoon at North County Field in Canton, New York.

First-year goalkeeper Cara Vredenburg made 10 first-half saves for the Saints, but in the 35^th minute Julia Cummings fired a penalty corner to the top of the circle and Ackerman found the back of the net.

"I thought we played very well in the first half," head coach Fran Grembowicz had to say. "Offensively and defensively we really put our game together and we kept it together for the first half. New Paltz really upped their game up in the second half and we weren't able to match them. They are a very good team, we watched that yesterday as they took on Utica. To hold them to one goal is a good effort on our part, but their defense took away a lot of our passing game which slowed us down in the second half and we couldn't get anything going offensively. Our core unit did a good job defensively, Cara did a great job and made some really good save. It was a good weekend for us, I'm proud of the way we played. We've got some things to focus on going forward, but for an opening weekend we're in a pretty good place moving forward."

New Paltz finished with a 14-2 advantage in shots, and took 17 penalty corners to the Saints' five.

With the loss, the Saints fall to 2-1 on the season, while New Paltz improves to 2-0.

The Saints will travel to Geneva next weekend for the William Smith Classic, where they will play Lebanon Valley at 2 p.m. on September 11 and Manhattanville College at 10:30 a.m. on September 12.