Field Hockey continued to roll this weekend at home, handing future America East Conference foe Vermont a 3-1 loss and staging a second half comeback on Sunday to beat Bucknell, 3-2.
“I thought we had some real moments of great hockey,” said Head Coach Carli Figlio. “What we are really hoping to do is string those moments together.”
Twenty-seven minutes of scoreless field hockey was interrupted on Friday when senior forward Kelly Hanna intercepted a pass over the middle and hit senior forward Georgia Garden Bachop with a perfectly placed pass. Bachop timed the pass up and buried the ball into the net to put the Hawks up one. Monmouth would carry that 1-0 advantage into the half.
Hanna scored the second goal of the game in the 40th minute when freshman defender Lotte Boom turned a defensive play into an offensive chance. Boom came away with the ball after a defensive tackle and made a pinpoint pass to Hanna at the top of the circle. Hanna did not waste the opportunity and put the Hawks up two.
Vermont made it interesting by finding twine in the 49th minute to bring themselves within one. Bachop quickly added an insurance goal a minute later off of an assist from senior forward Elyssa Okken. The Hawks tightened up the defense from there and walked off with a 3-1 win.
“I think I am lucky enough to be the last line on the field,” said Bachop, who now has four multi-goal games in her career. “Our backs have been doing well feeding the ball up to our mid-fielders. Then they are putting the ball right into the circle and me and the other forwards have been lucky enough to finish it off.”
Two days after the win over Vermont, Monmouth welcomed Bucknell to So Sweet a Cat Field.
The Bison quickly stormed out to a 2-0 lead within the first 21 minutes. Junior forward Josephine van der Hoop put the Hawks on the board just moments later with her first goal of the season to make it 2-1 going into the half.
Monmouth turned it around in the second half. The Hawks evened the score in the 40th minute when a corner attempt saw van der Hoop rocket a ball towards the far post where freshman forward Annick van Lange was waiting to score her second career goal.
The time continued to tick off the clock as both teams stopped each other’s scoring chances. With less than thirty seconds left in the game, van Lange’s shot from inside of the circle was saved by Bucknell’s goalkeeper. Hanna was there to knock in the rebound to complete the comeback win.
“It [the goal] felt awesome, it was our last out of conference game, so it was a really great tone to set heading into conference play,” said Hanna.
With the win, Monmouth finished the non-conference portion of their schedule level at 5-5. Sunday’s comeback at So Sweet a Cat Field extends Field Hockey’s unbeaten streak at home to 25 games, a record that dates back to 2015.
Figlio said, “I thought some of our attacking opportunities were fantastic. Hopefully by stringing some of that stuff together we will not have some of those lulls like we had today.”
The Hawks will open up Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) play on Friday when they make the trip to Lawrenceville, NJ to take on in-state rival Rider. The match is set for a 7:00 p.m. start and will be televised on ESPN3.
PHOTO TAKEN by Karlee Sell
