College Field Hockey
MAAC Championship Game
Monmouth University 6, Rider University 1

WEST LONG BRANCH—The Rider University field hockey season came to an end in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship game with the Broncs falling to the Monmouth University Hawks on Sunday afternoon at So Sweet A Cat Field.

The Hawks were led by a hat trick from Amanda Schoenfield, who was named the All-Championship Team Most Valuable Player.

“Monmouth's skills and their passing, especially on this surface were outstanding today,” said head coach Lori Hussong, who led her squad to their 15th straight four-team conference playoff appearance.  “We had a young team and we had to make a lot of progress to make it to this point.”

Monmouth took a 1-0 lead at the 17:05 mark of the opening half with Schoenfield scoring her 14th of the season and second of the playoffs, off a pass from Trish O'Dwyer.

O'Dwyer made it 2-0 with 7:48 left in the first half, taking a pass from Schoenfield and beating Rider junior goalie Joelle Prettyman (Newark, Del./St. Mark's) to the low post to become Monmouth's all-time points leader.

Prettyman made 10 saves as Monmouth (13-7) out-shot Rider 19-4, including 10-1 in the opening 35 minutes.

Schoenfield and O'Dwyer combined on a two on one with 3:56 remaining in the opening half to give the Hawks a 3-0 lead at intermission.

Rider cut the lead to 3-1 with 29:41 left in the game when sophomore Carlota Alsina (Barcelona, Spain) hit a one-timer from the top of the circle, scoring her fifth of the season.

Alsina, along with seniors Stacey Dileo (Fairfield, Conn./Fairfield Warde) and Dezarae Fillmyer (Roebling/Florence) were named to the All-MAAC Championship Team.

Schoenfield scored her third goal of the game, taking a pass from O'Dwyer after a Hawk corner, hitting the top corner of the goal and giving Monmouth back the three goal lead with 26:45 left.

Hawk Maartje Wicherink hit the back of the cage on an unassisted goal with 14:05 remaining and a backhanded shot by O'Dwyer her second of the game with 3:23 left was the final score.

Monmouth held a 6-3 advantage in penalty corners.

Monmouth avenged a 1-0, regular season loss at Rider on October 17 in Lawrenceville.

This is the fourth time in the last five seasons that Rider and Monmouth have met for a conference championship in field hockey with the Broncs winning in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Monmouth won for the eighth time in the 35 game series (3 ties).  Rider had won eight in a row in the series with the last Hawk win coming in 2009 when Monmouth scored a 2-1, overtime victory in the Northeast Conference semifinals.

This is the 12th time in Hussong's 15 seasons that Rider has advanced to the conference finals with Rider winning the title in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2011 and 2012.

“The beginning of the season, it wasn't a guarantee that we would get to the playoffs, let alone the finals,” Hussong said.  “We have a lot of pride and tradition that we want to keep going and uphold.”

Rider returns 16 letterwinners for the 2015 season.

-RU-