Philadelphia, PA — Monmouth Field Hockey used a dominant second-half to secure a 3-0 shutout over hosting Drexel Friday at Buckley Field.
The No. 18 Hawks avenged last year's CAA finals loss against the Dragons who pulled the upset in last year's conference championship game, but the hosts came out hot to start the regular season meeting Friday. They worked the ball in possession and forced Monmouth goalie
Charlie Bowman to come out and break up two threatening scoring chances in the second quarter but the junior did well to hold onto the 0-0 stalemate at the break.
The Hawks emphasized their press at halftime and the pressure changed the momentum of the game, as the Dragons couldn't win the ball back on Monmouth's relentlessness on the re-defend.
"We really wanted to focus on pressuring the ball in our press," said Hawks coach
Carli Figlio. "We talked at halftime that if we can create that pressure then our counterattack will be able to catch up ahead and traditionally, Drexel is a very scary team in the third quarter. Every single team they play they are in possession in the last two quarters, so that was a huge focus for us to set the momentum right away. I think that one thing of pressuring the ball really helped us, and then having defended really, really well."
Monmouth buzzed around its offensive circle to start the third quarter and earned consecutive penalty corners with
Anna Moors, for the second consecutive game, coming up with the goal on the set play.
Luisa Schlueter was on the insert with
Audrey Mullen coming up with the assist on the play at the 42nd minute in the game.
Gallery: (10-2-2026) Field Hockey at Drexel 10/2/26
The Hawks took the 1-0 advantage into the fourth and continued dominating possession, showing their athleticism in their front line, as they continued to work hard to win the ball back and keep possession in their offensive half.
Éabha Curran found the ball at her stick within the circle and following a reckless swing by the Dragons, she helped earn her team a penalty stroke to double the lead. CAA leading scorer
Milla Frye was called upon and calmly sliced the attempt top left corner for her 11th of the year to boost the lead to 2-0.
The Hawks rode the momentum and quickly put up another score. Frye sent a ball inside the circle that was met by
Claire Campen who snuck a shot around Drexel goalie Halle Geiger (six saves) to put her team up 3-0 with six minutes left in the game.
"Absolutely critical because Drexel's counterattack is so deadly," said Figlio of the Hawks' ability to re-defend and put pressure within their press. "They are so fast, so if our two front lines weren't working off the ball and trying to re-gain pressure on the ball then it would've been a completely different day. I'm just proud of the effort. We were rolling a lot of subs, and every kid was giving 100 percent, so they needed to come out and rest. It was a total team effort."
Second half stats reflected the turn of the game, as Monmouth out-shot the Dragons, 1-0 within the first 30 minutes but went on to tally 14 shots, nine on goal to Drexel's two. The visitors also garnered seven penalty corners — all in the second half — to just one for the Dragons. Bowman earned the victory and registered on stop.
Twenty different Hawks saw action in the win.
Florence van Doorn led the team defensively with a defensive save to go along with three shots, two of which were on goal. Frye led the team offensively with four shots including her fourth quarter score.
"Those are the games where it does make you really proud walking away, because we didn't have to rely on one thing to go well," Figlio said. "I thought everybody stepped up and did their job, which has been a big focus for us is do your role and everything else will fall into play. We do well when we pressure, so we just have to keep doing it."
Monmouth is back in action Sunday, hosting No. 15 nationally ranked Yale on So Sweet A Cat Field at 12 p.m.
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