Freshman goalkeeper Jessie Eiselin has started off her Monmouth career strong. Just last week on Sept. 18 the conference announced Eiselin as the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) Field Hockey Rookie of the Week. This comes as no surprise considering her outstanding performances so far as her first year as a Hawk.
This was well-earned by Eiselin due to her hard work in just the start of this 2023 season. In the previous games leading up to Monmouth’s conference opener, the Hawks have seen Eiselin show up and show out. In just the first non-conference game of the season against UConn, Eiselin made an incredible five saves in her Monmouth debut. Eiselin continued to add to her saves record, as she made a season-high eight saves on 13 shots in goal against Syracuse on Sept. 1.
Following the Syracuse game, Eiselin made three saves in 60 minutes in net against Sacred Heart and helped Monmouth to their second win.
Leading up to Monmouth’s first conference game, Eiselin then made a total of 29 saves across six non-conference games. Eiselin only went up from there.
On Sept. 15 the Hawks faced Drexel for the first CAA game of the season. It proved to be a relatively even matchup, and the Hawks walked away victorious 1-0. This game was outstanding for Eiselin as she protected the net while being tested during the entire game. The Drexel offense landed 10 of its 16 shots on goal, but Eiselin made save after save to contribute to her team’s win. It was here that Eiselin recorded her first career shutout against Drexel by turning away nine shots on goal, making that her season high.
Eiselin has earned herself not only Rookie of the Week, but she also now leads the CAA in save percentage by stopping 76% of the shots in goal. She is second in goals against average at 1.75, and her save percentage is ranked 23rd nationally.
Eiselin is most definitely a player to keep watching this season, and it looks as if she is going to bring a lot of success to this team.
Four short days after Eiselin was named CAA FH Rookie of the Week, Monmouth Field Hockey went on to face the 20 rank, Delaware in which they won 2-1. Monmouth and Delaware had a previous matchup on Sept. 4 of last year (2022) in which they came out on top 3-2. Friday’s game was the first time Monmouth won over a ranked opponent since that last meeting with Delaware back in 2022. The first three quarters of this game saw little to no action, as they went into the fourth quarter with a scoreless tie, 0-0.
40 seconds into the fourth quarter, the Blue Hens made their first goal of the game off a rebound, to put themselves on the scoreboard.
Less than a minute later, junior Sofia Fouces returned the favor and scored her first goal of the game and ninth goal of the season to then put the Hawks on the scoreboard and make the score 1-1.
It was not long until Fouces put the goal in the net once again with an assist from Nora Goddard-Despot and Johanna Karlhuber. This put the Hawks up 2-1 and potted Fouces CAA-leading tenth goal.
This matchup game down to the final minutes, when Delaware earned a penalty kick, but CAA FH Rookie of the Week, Jessie Eiselin, deflected the shot to keep the score 2-1 in favor of Monmouth.
