Women’s Soccer defeated Fairfield 2-0 and St. Peters 2-1 in an overtime battle to close out the regular season on a three game winning streak.
MU hosted their final regular season home game on Wednesday night when 6-8 Fairfield came to Hesse Field for Breast Cancer Awareness night. The Hawks all-time record against Fairfield was 5-1-1 going into the game as they hoped to keep things rolling.
The theme early on was the corner kicks for Monmouth, as several opportunities were presented thanks to the corners from freshman defender Sarina Jones.
Eventually, in the 29th minute, Jones nearly put her corner kick in the back of the net, however senior defender Gabriella Cuevas was able to find the loose ball and finish it off for her third goal of the season.
The Hawks were able to hold onto the 1-0 lead throughout the first half as the ball seemed to stay in the Monmouth zone and the defense wasn’t bending.
Sophomore goalkeeper, Amanda Knaub, found herself a half away from another shutout without even having to record a save in the first half. Her first save came early on in the 2nd as she barely had to move, which was a theme for her 4 saves on the night.
The second half went very similar to the first, as the ball barely reached the Fairfield zone and Monmouth continued to get scoring opportunities.
The Hawks were able to extend their lead to 2-0 in the 71st minute when senior midfielder Sophie Centi ripped a shot that was deflected by sophomore forward Dana Scheriff past the Fairfield keeper for the goal.
Sure enough, Knaub was able to close out her 10th shutout of the season, as Monmouth notched themselves the 2-0 win in front of their home crowd.
Sophomore forward Madie Gibson made an impact early in the game with a couple of quality runs before she collided with Fairfield’s goalkeeper in the third minute, causing her to exit the game. Luckily, she did return to her 36th consecutive start and should be healthy moving forward.
“It is very difficult to be the best team over the stretch of an entire regular season.” said Head Coach Krissy Turner after the game. Yet that’s exactly what they did as they closed out their 5th consecutive Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) regular season championship.
After already clinching the conference, MU still had one more regular season game to play as they traveled to their rival Saint Peters on Saturday afternoon.
The Hawks were 10-0-0 when scoring first in 2017, however they fell behind early in this one as Saint Peters got it past Knaub in the 23rd minute.
Monmouth wouldn’t let this deficit last long as junior defender LeAnne Davis finished off the pass from senior defender Lexie Palladino to tie up the score before the half.
The second half was a defensive battle as neither team found the scoreboard and the game reached overtime where Monmouth was 0-0-2 on the year.
That would change here however as the Hawks got their first overtime win of the year when junior midfielder Alli DeLuca assisted Gibson for the game winner.
The win closed out the Hawks regular season where they had an excellent 12-3-2 record, which carried them to the conference crown and the number one seed in the MAAC tournament.
Turner expressed the team’s excitement saying, “We look forward to heading down to Disney next week to compete for a championship.”
PHOTO COURTESY of Karlee Sell
