MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. - Paced by a pair of sophomores in Patricia O'Dwyer (Dublin, Ireland/Loreto Beaufort) and Alex Carroll (Oceanport, N.J./Shore Regional), the Monmouth University field hockey team defeated Robert Morris University, 4-1, in the regular season finale Sunday afternoon at Joe Walton Stadium. MU outshot the Colonials, 23-8, and held the penalty corner advantage, 14-5, as O'Dwyer recorded her first career hat trick, while Carroll scored the Hawks' first goal of the game and added two helpers in the victory.
The Hawks, who have already locked up the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Northeast Conference Tournament to be played November 4-5 at top-seed Rider University, enter the postseason with a 14-5 record and 6-1 league mark. For the second-straight season, the Blue and White compiled 14 regular season victories as it entered last season's conference tournament with a 14-4 record.
Monmouth, which is making its eighth all-time appearance in postseason play, will take on third-seeded Quinnipiac University in the first round of the Northeast Conference Tournament on Friday, November 4th at 11 a.m. in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.
"It was a great way to end the regular season with the win," said fifth-year head coach Carli Figlio, who leads her team to a third-straight NEC Tournament appearance. "Trish and Alex both had an outstanding game for us. Alex has been extremely consistent this year and it's nice to see her hard work pay off today."
Carroll and O'Dwyer each found the back of the cage within a span of 1:21 to stake Monmouth to a 2-0 first-half lead. In the 23rd minute, O'Dwyer took a feed from graduate Morganne Firmstone (Honesdale, Pa./Honesdale) off a corner attempt that she sent towards Carroll who fired a shot past RMU's goalkeeper, Erin McKenzie, for her seventh tally of the season. A minute later, Melissa Murphy (West Long Branch, N.J./Shore Regional) connected with O'Dwyer at the top of the circle where she blasted a shot past McKenzie for her first strike of the game.
Taleah Scott scored in the 26th minute for Robert Morris to cut Monmouth's lead in half heading into the break.
The Hawks extended their lead in the 63rd minute of action as junior Kimmy Baligian (Whitehouse Station, N.J./Hunterdon Central) inserted a penalty corner to Carroll who returned the favor from earlier and set up O'Dwyer with a shot that beat McKenzie to give MU a two goal advantage. Four minutes later, Carroll found senior Tara Brown (Hatboro, Pa./Archbishop Wood) who sent a shot towards the cage that was tipped by O'Dwyer, which completed her hat trick and increased her season goal total to 14.
O'Dwyer finished her career day with seven points on three goals and one assist, while firing a career-high ten shots, eight of which were on target.
Sophomore goalkeeper Teresa Mathews (Lumberton, N.J./Rancocas Valley), who has started all 19 regular season games for the Hawks, recorded four saves in the victory. McKenzie turned away 14 shots in the loss.
Figlio added, "We look forward to building off this victory heading into the conference tournament next weekend."
