Last week, Cassie Coster was named by the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) as the defensive player of the week for the league. This was Coster’s second time being honored this season and the fourth time in her CAA career.
Coster has helped to lead the Hawks to their seven-match shutout streak and to eight overall so far this season. On Sept. 26, Coster had three saves in her performance against Elon. All three of the saves came in the first half of the afternoon game. The Hawks’ defense and Coster held Elon to only five shots in the entire game, only three of which were on goal.
Coster put on one of her best performances of the season against Drexel on Sunday, Oct. 1. She made a season-high nine saves in the contest, five of which came in the first half.
Coster came out of goal to meet Hofstra attackers when facing the offense and deflected a couple of balls out of the path to goal by punching them out of trouble. She was able to finish out the week with 12 saves in the two games against Elon and Drexel.
In their hard-fought contest against Towson, Coster was able to make three saves for the Hawks and even posted her hundredth career save as a Hawk in her twenty-ninth career game with Monmouth. She was also able to register two saves in the Hawks game against Northeastern on Sunday afternoon.
Coster joined Monmouth Women’s Soccer team as a sophomore in 2022 after attending Albany her freshman year. As a sophomore, she started all 18 games in net for the Hawks. She had 0.61 goals against average and a .843 save percentage with her 59 stops and nine shutouts throughout the season.
Coster was ranked among the top five in the CAA for shutouts, goals against average, and her save percentage.
So far in 2023, Coster has started the Hawks 12 games this season. She currently has 0.73 goals against average and a 0.840 save percentage. She’s had 42 stops so far this season and eight shutouts.
On Sept. 14 against William & Mary, Coster had eight saves throughout the 0-0 tie, one less than her season high of nine saves against Drexel. Coster has recorded 17 shutouts in her career with Monmouth.
Last week the Hawks faced Towson. Both teams came into the game unbeaten in CAA play, and it remained this way after the teams locked at a 0-0 draw last Thursday night, Oct. 5. Monmouth was able to continue their streak of shutouts for the seventh time in a row.
The first half was a back-and-forth battle with neither team dominating the other, and both teams had their own chances. The Hawks were able to take seven shots in the first half but could not find the back of the net.
The teams entered the halftime break locked together, and even with each team recording two shots in the second half, it remained that way until the final whistle.
Thursday night’s game was the fifth all-time meeting, but this was the first time it had ever ended in a draw between the teams.
In a statement on the Monmouth Athletics website, Head Coach Kylee Flynn stated, “Tonight was a battle like we knew it would be. Towson has dangerous personalities up top that we had to deal with. I’m proud of our team for not allowing any goals against for the seventh straight game. We are looking forward to another competitive game on Sunday against a strong Northeastern side.”
On Oct. 8, Northeastern proved to be a competitive oppenent for the Hawks as the Huskies were able to leave with a 1-0 win over the Hawks. The beginning of the game was back-and-forth between both teams with five shots being recorded between them. However, in the 25th minute it was the Huskies who broke through. The Hawks attempted to clear the ball, but it landed at the feet of a Northeastern attacker who was able to take a long shot past Coster into the back of the net. The Huskies had the advantage going into halftime and were able to hold it even through the Hawks ten second half shots, including one that hit the crossbar.
This loss brought the end of Monmouth’s seven-match unbeaten streak. It also brought the end to the 690-minute scoreless streak for Coster and the Hawks, which started back on Sept. 3 against Penn State. Monmouth starts the new week tied for fourth in the CAA standings with four games to go in regular season play.
