The Monmouth women’s soccer team defeated the Siena Saints on Saturday, Oct. 23 to clinch the MAAC regular season championship title. This is the eighth regular season championship earned by the women’s soccer team in nine years.
Siena is the only other program in the MAAC conference to have won a regular season championship since Monmouth joined the conference in 2013. Their last meeting was in the shortened 2020-2021 Spring season.
Monmouth’s win places them at the top of the conference standings with a 7-1-1 record. They are followed by Siena, Niagara, and Quinnipiac who are locked in a three-way tie for second with 6-3 conference record.
Monmouth and Siena last faced each other on April 16, 2021 in the MAAC Championship Match. After a scoreless 110 minutes, the Saints won that contest in penalty kicks.
In Saturday’s battle, Monmouth outshot the Saints 14-6 and had an 8-0 advantage in corner shots. The victory improved the Hawks to 10-1-2 all-time versus Siena.
The Hawks beat Siena 1-0 at Hesse Field on The Great Lawn. The women are 11-4-1 overall. The winning goal was scored in the first half of the game by Brianna Russo.
Monmouth’s Chloe Ferreira sent a ball into the box in the 38th minute of the game. Ferreira’s ball was headed by Jill Conklin and followed up by Brianna Russo. Russo was able to put the ball in the back of the net. That was Russo’s second goal of the season, Ferreira’s first assist and Conklin’s second assist of the season.
Monmouth’s defense had an outstanding performance and didn’t allow the Siena team a shot on goal in the final 86 minutes of play. Two saves early in the match earned goalie Maddie Ogden her third shutout for the season. Head Coach Krissy Turner said, “We earned a shutout which was the first one for us in several games.”
Saturday’s win comes after a road loss to Marist on Wednesday, Oct. 20. The Hawk’s had 17 shots with eight on goal during the matchup. Monmouth had an 8-2 edge in corner kicks against Marist and Jesi Rossman totaled three shots on goal. Despite their effort the Hawks were not able to place any shots in the net. The women’s team suffered their first conference loss of the season.
Coach Turner said, “I am super proud of this group of young women. We have had a lot of adversity with injuries but weathered the storm to be regular season champions. We will look to finish strong for our final MAAC regular season game on Wednesday.”
Monmouth will finish their regular season play with a road trip to Riverdale, New York, to face conference opponent Manhattan. The Hawk’s and conference opponent Manhattan will kick off at 3 pm on Wednesday, Oct. 27 at Gaelic Park.
The 2021 MAAC Women’s Soccer Championship tournament will begin on Sunday, Oct. 31. The top eight teams will compete in a quarterfinal match hosted by the higher seeded team. Game times are to be determined and will be aired on ESPN3 and ESPN+. In August 2021 the Monmouth University women’s soccer team was chosen to be in the top spot in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference’s Preseason Poll. Turner says of her team, “We will need to have a strong defensive presence throughout the remainder of the season.”
The MAAC semifinals will take place on Thursday, November 4 and the Championship Game is scheduled to take place on Sunday, Nov. 7. All games will be hosted by the higher seed.
Follow Monmouth women’s soccer on Twitter and Instagram at @MonmouthWSOC and find them on Facebook at Monmouth University Women’s Soccer.
