The Monmouth University women’s soccer team acquired their third and fourth consecutive shutouts this week. Their match against Drexel University on Thursday, Sept. 12 ended with a scoreless tie. Later in the week they amped things up for their match against the nationally ranked No. 25 school, the University of Texas on Saturday, Sept. 15 emerging with a 4-0 victory.
The Hawks led the first half of the Drexel match, but were unable to bypass Drexel’s senior goalkeeper Libby Baeza. Monmouth led with a 15-6 edge in total shots on goal, and when it looked as though senior forward Madie Gibson was going to earn a point for Monmouth, it was thwarted by an offsides call.
“The first half was our best soccer of the year,” said Head Coach Krissy Turner. “Unfortunately we didn’t score a goal or two in that time. We will continue to work on our play in the final third to gain more confidence in front of goal.”
Later in the week, the Hawks took on a Top 25 opponent, the University of Texas Longhorns, and emerged victorious. The 4-0 shutout is the team’s fourth consecutive win of the 2019 season, as well as their first Top 25 victory since Aug. 29, 2010 when they shutout Rutgers 1-0.
Although this was Monmouth’s first time ever playing against Texas, they made their mark on the Longhorns by breaking their 18-game home regular season win streak.
The 4-0 sweep is not only senior goalkeeper Amanda Knaub’s 34th shutout, the third highest in Monmouth history, it is also the Longhorns’ worst home-game loss since their last 4-0 shutout against Washington State in 2009, 10 years ago.
Entering the game, Texas had not surrendered a goal in 255:40 of match action. Monmouth quickly set that clock back to zero when they scored three goals in just the first-half. Senior forward Dana Scheriff got the Hawks on the scoreboard in the sixth minute of the game. Scheriff stepped in front of a Longhorn defender and used her left foot to score the first goal of the game.
In the 18th minute of the game, sophomore forward Lauren Karabin set up Gibson to cross pass inside the far post to senior midfielder Lexie Palladino for the Hawks’ second goal. The third goal of the first half was the product of a 70-yard run to the Longhorns’ end line by Gibson, who sent a left-footed pass over to sophomore forward A’Liah Moore who tapped the ball into an empty net to make the score 3-0 in the 26th minute.
Later in the 84th minute of the match, Gibson executed a shot that became the fourth and final goal by the Hawks, to make it the final shutout score of 4-0.
“This was a tremendous performance on the road against a Top 25 opponent,” said Turner. “This win is for Monmouth Athletics and Monmouth women’s soccer. It is a great day to be a Hawk!”
This game improved Monmouth’s all-time record against ranked opponents to 2-10-0.
The Hawks outshot Texas 12-11, including a 7-4 advantage in the first half. Scheriff, Palladino, Moore, and Gibson all registered their first goals of the season. After two assists during this match, Gibson is tied for second all-time in the program with Dana Costello (2009-13) for total career assists at 28.
Scheriff scored her 10th career goal during the match, and six of them have been game-winning goals.
The Hawks travel to Saint Peter’s University in Jersey City for their first game of conference play on Saturday, Sept. 21. Kickoff is set for 12:00 p.m.
PHOTO TAKEN by Bethany Hocker
