Field Hockey faced William & Mary Friday, Oct. 20 and was defeated 2-3. Junior Sofia Fouces put Monmouth on the board early on when she scored just 88 seconds into play when the Tribe turned the ball over in their own circle.
The first quarter continued to see a lot of action when William & Mary scored the next two goals, taking the lead.
Not long into the second quarter, Nora Goddard-Despot got possession of a turnover, where she then passed it to freshman Lauren Relik in the opposite direction. Relik found Fouces in front of the net, where she was then able to find the back of the net as she recorded her fifteenth goal of the season, to tie the game.
William & Mary returned the favor halfway through the third quarter and claimed their lead back, 3-2. Monmouth’s goalkeeper Jessie Eiselin made major saves to keep the game close and give Monmouth a chance to come back; unfortunately, Monmouth was unable to break the deficit.
This was a solid game on both sides, with 11 shots from each team, and seven of them on goal. The Hawks earned four penalty kicks during this competition while the Tribe earned six.
Fouces alone had seven of the shots taken and she now has three multi-goal games this season.
Monmouth played their second to last game of the regular season on Sunday, Oct. 22 against the VCU Rams and walked away with a win 4-0, making it their tenth win of the season.
These two teams have quite the history with a total of six games played in the all-time series. The first matchup between these two teams dates back to 2006 where Monmouth lost 3-7. Monmouth lost the next three games over the course of five years. It was not until four years after that Monmouth defeated the Rams 3-1 at home. While VCU does lead the series, this game was Monmouth’s second win and second win in a row against VCU.
This win made it Monmouth’s eighth season with ten plus games won.
Freshman Lauren Relik started the game off strong just 12:20 into the first quarter when she scored Monmouth’s first goal of the game off an assist from Jess Tucker, which was Relik’s fifth goal of the season as just a freshman.
To no surprise, the second goal of the game came from junior Sofia Fouces off of a rebound. Fouces has been instrumental to Monmouth’s success this season. This goal was Fouces’ sixteenth goal of the season as she leads her team. Not only does Fouces lead her team, but she also leads the CAA in goals and points. In this game alone, Fouces had six shots, five of which were on goal.
Graduate student and German native Aylin Aufenacker recorded her third goal of the season off of a hard shot from the top of the circle to make the score 3-0 in favor of the Hawks. The score turned 4-0 when freshman Calista Schwartz made her second goal of the season, assisted by Nora Goddard-Despot to secure Monmouth’s win in the fourth quarter.
Freshman goalkeeper Jessie Eiselin has been a standout player all season long. She recorded her CAA-leading fifth shutout of the season with eight saves against VCU.
VCU outshot Monmouth 14-10 although both teams shot eight of them on goal. Monmouth had one corner kick, while VCU had an increasingly larger number at seven. The fouls this game were unusually high. Monmouth had 38, while VCU had 44. Clearly a very physical game on both sides, but despite that The Hawks were able to look past that and excel on both offense and defense.
With just one more game left in the regular season against Hofstra on Oct. 27, field hockey has had a very successful season with a record of 4-1 in conference play and 10-5 overall. This team has won five games at home, as well as five games on the road. With its strong defensive and offensive lines, the team’s success is no surprise to the campus community.
