FAIRFIELD, CT – Monmouth University juniors Nicole Ceraso (Massapequa, NY/Plainedge) and Rachel Mills (Denville, NJ/Morris Catholic/Towson) led a total of five Hawks who earned post-season honors at the annual Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference postseason awards banquet.
 
Ceraso earns Offensive Player of the Year honors while Mills took home Midfielder of the Year, the first two Hawks to earn major awards since Monmouth joined the conference in 2014. Fifth-year senior Mackenzie Rendich (San Ramon, CA/California High School) joined Ceraso and Mills on the First Team All-MAAC while junior Megan Hart (Clarksville, MD/Atholton) earned Second Team honors and defender Alynne Abney (Forest Hill, MD/Fallston) was named to the MAAC All-Rookie team.
 
This season Monmouth boasted the top-scoring offense in the MAAC, a unit which was guided by Ceraso, a junior captain. The Massapequa, NY native finished the regular season with a conference-high 80 points on 37 goals and 43 assists. Her 2.53 assists per game led the MAAC while the 43 helpers set a new Monmouth mark for assists in a single season. During the year she became Monmouth's all-time leader in assists with 105. The Monmouth offense boasted two of the top nine goal scorers in the league.
 
Mills earned the distinction as the league's top midfielder after starting all 17 games while finishing with 33 goals, grabbing 39 draw controls causing 21 turnovers and collecting 36 ground balls. The Denville, NJ native was clutch in the conference portion of the season, scoring 18 goals in the final five games of the season.
 
Rendich anchored the Monmouth defense what allowed just over 10 goals per contest. She started all 17 games on defense forcing 30 caused turnovers and collecting 25 ground balls. Hart earns a second team nod at the At-Large position after proving herself to be one of the top draw control midfielders in the league. The junior broke the Monmouth single-season record for draw controls and currently has 96 heading into tomorrow's game. Additionally she tallied seven points had 36 ground balls and 20 caused turnovers. Abney started all 17 games for the Hawks on defense, causing 12 miscues and tallying 29 ground balls.
 
In addition, Michelle Armstrong, Caroline Bleck, Riley Brager, Ceraso, Monica Cortes, Theresa Danetti, Saragh Gillogly, Megan Hart, Chloe Novak, Rendich, Logan Smet, Meghan Smith, Allison Stofregen, Emma Stuckenberg and Allison Turturro were all named to the MAAC Women's Lacrosse All-Academic Team. To be eligible a student-athlete must complete two semesters at their institution and hold a cumulative grade point average of 3.2 on a 4.0 scale.
 
Monmouth, which earned the second seed in the upcoming conference tournament, finished with a 12-5 overall record and went 6-2 in MAAC play. The Hawks will face the third-seeded Siena Saints tomorrow at 6 PM on the campus of Fairfield University. That game will air on ESPN+.