The Hawks had their first conference play loss on So Sweet A Cat field, closing out their final home regular season game. They fell 3-2 in overtime against the Fairfield Stags.
This was the Stags first season in the Coastal Athletic Association, after departing from the Northeast Conference (NEC) last year. The upset was their first win over a nationally-ranked team since 2019 and improved the Stags to 10-5 overall and 5-1 in the CAA.
Monmouth, who currently stands at 9-6 and 4-1 in the CAA, struggled to maintain a steady level of play. Towards the end of the first quarter, junior Milla Fryre made a statement for the Hawks offensively, scoring the first goal of the game on her own efforts, bringing her to 13 this season. Fyre holds on to her spot with the most goals on the team this season.
The game was tied in the 18th minute, when Fairfield’s Camille Perlov found the net earning her team’s first goal of the afternoon with the assist by Kaylen Fogelson.
Neither the Hawks or the Stags were able to find the net during the third quarter of the game.
A minute into the fourth quarter sophomore Alicia Vanderlyde broke the tie after scoring on a penalty corner. The corner was earned by junior Lilly Ricks and senior Lauren Relik and Luisa Schuleter were credited with the assists.
The Hawks held onto the lead until Fairfield’s Rylee LaLoup scored with just over two minutes remaining in the game. Moments before the quarter closed, junior Éabha Curran took a shot but was unable to get the ball past Stags goalie Paige Jackson. This set the Stags up to compete with the Hawks in overtime.
Eight minutes into overtime, the Stags had the opportunity to score on a penalty corner and they capitalized on that opportunity. Goalie Charlie Bowman made the initial stop, but the Hawks were unable to clear the ball out of the circle and as a result, Fairfield’s Alice Pifferi found the net and brought her team to a 3-2 win.
Fairfield slightly outshout Monmouth 17-16, but the Hawks had the upper hand on shots on goal, 12-11. Both teams had a total of five penalty corners.
Bowman completed the game with 8 saves. Vanderlyde had the most shots, taking four against the Stags, followed by Curran and Frye who each had three.
Monmouth’s defeat ended its nine game run of consecutive victories in regular season CAA competition, a streak that began during the 2025 season. The Hawks traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts to take on No. 5 Harvard Sunday, where they lost 3-1. They close out CAA play against Northeastern in Boston on Oct. 30 at 3 p.m.
