STANDISH, ME – Freshman forward Amanda Celata broke a scoreless stalemate with 15 seconds remaining in regulation to lift Saint Joseph's (4-2, 2-0 NAC) past Simmons College (1-5, 0-1 NAC) in a North Atlantic Conference (NAC) field hockey contest at Mercy Field on Sunday afternoon.

With extra play seeming imminent and the Sharks attempting to clear out of their defensive end, junior captain Theresa Hendrix pick-pocketed a Simmons defender in the right corner and quickly fed freshman Allyson Allard, who served a crossing pass to Celata at the goalmouth. Celata finished the play with a one-timer shot to the bottom right corner of the cage for her third goal of the year.

Both teams had opportunities to net the game's first goal earlier in the contest and the Sharks registered three such chances over an eight-minute span early in the second stanza. In the 46th minute, following a penalty corner taken by freshman Amy Cronin (Georgetown, Mass.), sophomore midfielder Meghan Fay (Foxboro, Mass.) took a shot that clanged off the left post. Less than 30 seconds later, Fay had a prime opportunity to score again but was denied by SJC freshman defender Kayla Royer, who blocked Fay's shot to record the first defensive save of her career.

Freshman Brenna Fitzgibbon would duplicate Royer's effort about eight minutes later when she stopped a Cronin shot from crossing the goal line at the 53:49 mark for her first career defensive save.

Senior keeper Taylor Allison notched her third shutout of the year after making one stop for the hosts while Simmons netminder Renna Smith (Belfast, Maine) played very well with eight saves in a losing effort. Saint Joseph's held sizeable advantages in both shots (13-4) and corners (16-6) in the conference victory.

With the win, St. Joe's improves to 12-6 in the history of the series with Simmons College and has now defeated the Sharks in eight consecutive meetings dating back to the 2006 season. The shutout victory was the Monks' fifth over Simmons. Saint Joseph's will host University of Southern Maine on Wednesday at 3:30 PM, while Simmons hosts Salve Regina University on Wednesday at 7:00 PM.