Monmouth women’s lacrosse dropped a crucial conference game to the Hofstra Pride on Saturday, giving up 10 goals over the course of the third quarter in the process.
The game was competitive in the first half, but Hofstra went on an incredible second-half run to end up winning by double digits.
Senior attacker Shea Berigan got the scoring started in the Saturday afternoon contest, giving the Hawks a 1-0 lead a little over a minute into the game. Hofstra tied it less than a minute later, but senior midfielder Brooke Lacey responded 20 seconds later to give the Hawks the lead back.
The Pride and Hawks exchanged two goals apiece to wrap up the first quarter, with freshman midfielder Marlania Grimm scoring her first goal of the game and Lacey scoring her second for the Hawks.
The start of the second quarter wound up being the best stretch of the game for the Hawks, as they outscored Hofstra 3-1 over the first four minutes of the frame. Berigan scored two goals, and senior midfielder Sophia Lymberis netted her first of the game. After this stretch, Monmouth had a 7-4 lead.
The rest of the game was a struggle for Monmouth. Hofstra outscored the Hawks 4-1 to close out the second half to head into halftime in an 8-8 tie. Berigan scored her fourth goal of the game during that stretch for the Hawks.
In the third quarter, Hofstra blew the game wide open. The Pride scored 10 goals, including seven in a five minute and 44 second stretch between the 13:00 mark and the 7:16 mark in the quarter. Freshman midfielder Olivia Castaldo stopped the bleeding slightly for the Hawks after Hofstra’s seven-goal run, but Hofstra responded to that with four straight goals to open the score to 19-9. This put the game on a running clock, despite a tie score at halftime.
In the fourth quarter, Castaldo and Grimm both scored their second goals of the game, but the third quarter collapse was too much to overcome, as Hofstra ended up winning the game by a score of 22-11. The 22 goals was the most the Hawks have given up in a game since April 12, 2024. On that day, they also let up 22 goals to this same Hofstra team.
Berigan led the way for the Hawks in scoring, netting four goals and an assist for five points. Her assist on Castaldo’s first goal was her 50th point on the season, second on the team behind graduate attacker Lauren Rismani, who had two assists in the game. Grimm, Castaldo, and Lacey each had two goals, with Lymberis scoring one. Senior attacker Brenna McCafferty and graduate attacker Julia West each had one assist.
The third quarter was the turning point of this game. Hofstra outshot Monmouth 13-1 in that frame and outshot them 41-16 total in the game. Junior goalkeeper Katie Sullivan held her own in the first half and kept the Hawks in the game, making seven saves on fifteen shots on goal, but in the third quarter she allowed ten goals on twelve shots on net.
With the loss, Monmouth’s postseason hopes are hanging on by a thread. They sit at 1-4 in conference play with two conference games remaining. They are tied for sixth in the CAA standings with Drexel. Their only path to a CAA Tournament spot is to win their final two games and have Towson, who is currently fourth in the CAA standings and hold the final tournament spot, lose their final two games. They also need to pass William & Mary, who is fifth in the standings and beat Monmouth earlier in the season.
The Hawks will visit the aforementioned Drexel Dragons today, April 15 at 3 p.m. for a midweek game. With both teams sitting at 1-4 in conference play, the loser of this game will be eliminated from postseason contention.
As for Hofstra, they have already clinched a spot in the CAA tournament and are still undefeated in conference play. They sit at 9-5 overall on the season and will face their toughest test yet as they will travel across Long Island to face Stony Brook on Friday, who is also undefeated in conference play and ranked No. 12 in the country. Both teams have already locked up spots in the conference tournament, but the winner will have a clear path to the No. 1 seed in the bracket. The game between the top two teams in the conference will kick off on Friday at noon.
