WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J.- Canisius College (11-5, 8-0 MAAC) used a 10-goal first half performance to capture the 2015 MAAC regular season title and edge Monmouth (10-5, 5-2 MAAC) 13-10 on Saturday afternoon.

With the win the Golden Griffins secure the first seed and a first round bye in the upcoming 2015 MAAC Tournament. Canisius, the four time defending tournament champions, will host the top four remaining seeds on May 1st in Buffalo.

“I thought they were finding people off the passes early and they ran their fast break to score,” said Monmouth head coach Denise Wescott.  Once we made our adjustment it went better. We took Quinn out of the game a little bit and they only scored three goals in the second half. We started to do the things we needed to do defensively. We let them hurt us a little too much today between the turnovers in transition and losing the draws. Those are things I think we can clean up. We are excited to play again on Wednesday and we'll see what comes next.”

Monmouth, which was led by senior Emily Barbieri's (Parsippany, N.J./DePaul Catholic) three goals, is currently in third place with one regular season game to play. Golden Griffin attacker Taylor Giglio had six points on three goals and three assists, while Tori Quinn and Meghan Cuddy each tallied a hat trick.

With the score tied 4-4 early, Canisius used a four goal spurt over a four minute span to take an 8-4 lead with 13:15 left in the first half, a lead they would not relinquish. The Griffs took a 10-6 lead into halftime and while Monmouth closed to 12-10 on Allison Stathius' (Delran, N.J./Delran) final goal, the Hawks would get no closer.

Monmouth outshot the Gold Griffins 27-25 but committed 16 turnovers compared to 13 for Canisius. Canisius also won 16 of the 25 draw controls, including all but two in the second half as Monmouth tried to come back. Senior goalie Katie Donohoe (Peterborough, Ontario/Holy Cross Catholic Secondary) had 11 saves in the match while Canisius netminder Kayla Scully had nine saves in the win.

Barbieri, Stathius and Marial Pierce (Middleburg, Va./Holy Cross Catholic Secondary) all had three points in the win. Junior Michelle Gonzales (Marlton, N.J./Cherokee) had a goal and an assist, feeding sophomore Claudia LaMarca (West Long Branch, N.J./Shore Regional)  on her goal. Senior defender Gracie Williams (Reston, Va./Herndon) had six ground balls and a pair of caused turnovers to lead the defense.

The Hawks will wrap up the regular season on Wednesday when they head to Iona. The first round of the 2015 MAAC Tournament will be held on Saturday, April 25.