Women’s Lacrosse cruised past Canisius, 16-6, on Saturday afternoon at Kessler Stadium, improving the Hawks to a 10-5 record on the season and a 4-2 record in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) play.
After a heartbreaking loss to conference leader Fairfield last Wednesday by a close score of 13-12, the Hawks were able to bounce back with a dominant performance all around this past weekend.
“I think we needed to come out and show who we are, we needed a game and a day like this,” said Head Coach Jordan Trautman. “I’m really proud of the effort on both sides of the field but this is what we have been waiting for. We’ve been talking about taking moments and taking opportunities and that’s what they did today.”
Leading the Hawks’ offense were sophomore attacker Caroline Bleck and junior midfielder Rachel Mills, who each had career games. Bleck recorded eight points on four goals and four assists while Mills netted five goals. Mills has been playing exceptionally well as of late as she has scored nine goals in her last two games.
“My team has been doing a great job of passing the ball around and creating space for each other and I think that’s been really helpful,” said Mills. “I think those two losses we had really motivated us to come out strong today and finish the regular season strong.” Mills filled up just about every portion of the stat sheet in Saturday’s contest as she caused two turnovers, three draw controls, and two ground balls to go along with her goals.
Junior attacker Nicole Ceraso added three assists in the Hawks win. Ceraso now has 100 career assists and is only five shy of moving into first for all-time assists in school history.
After Monmouth’s 16-goal effort, they are now averaging 13.0 goals per game, which is the highest average in the MAAC.
“I think our offense is dynamic, we aren’t one dimensional,” said Trautman. “People are stepping up in big ways and that’s something that is a testament to our practices.”
The Hawks displayed their dynamic offense by scoring the first five goals of the game within the first 17 minutes. Canisius were unable to score their first goal until the 10:24 mark in the first half.
They would then score another goal shortly after but Monmouth responded by rattling off four unanswered goals, two of which came off of the stick of junior midfielder Sarah Gilogly and the Blue and White took a 9-2 lead going into halftime.
Senior attacker Logan Smet got the goal scoring started for Monmouth in the second half before Canisius scored the next two goals cutting the lead to 10-4 with 22 minutes left. The Hawks then took over by scoring the next five out of six goals to take a commanding 15-5 lead, which was too much for the Golden Griffins to overcome.
As the score shows, Monmouth dominated Canisius in just about every aspect of the game. The Blue and White outshot their opponents 39-18 and won 19 of the 24 draws. Junior midfielder Megan Hart set a new Monmouth single-season record for draw controls with 80, after tallying four in Saturday’s performance.
Monmouth’s defense also played well as they only gave up six goals the entire game. The Hawks’ six goals allowed is the lowest in a conference game since the 2016 season, where Monmouth held both Quinnipiac and Manhattan to six goals each. The Blue and White allowed just seven shots in the final 30 minutes of the game.
The Monmouth defense was led by sophomore defender Emily Holtz and senior defender Monica Cortes who caused three turnovers each.
With Saturday’s win, Monmouth reaches the ten win mark for the first time since 2016, which was also the first and only time they made it to the MAAC Championship game.
The Hawks will look to defeat conference rival Manhattan this afternoon in their last home game of the season. The match will start at 3:00 p.m. and will be streamed live online via ESPN+.
PHOTO TAKEN by Karlee Sell
