POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - The Monmouth University women's soccer team captured its second straight Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Regular Season Championship on Saturday night by virtue of its 1-0 victory at Marist, highlighted by sophomore forward Erica Murphy's (Millstone Township, N.J./Pennington Prep) game-winning tally in the 87th minute. With the win, Monmouth improves to 13-4 overall behind its seventh straight victory and fourth consecutive shutout, and 8-1 in league play.

 

Monmouth, which went 8-0-2 in the MAAC regular season in its first year in the league in 2013 to claim the No. 1 seed in the tournament, repeats as the top-seed in 2014 and will host the MAAC Championships on Hesse Field on The Great Lawn on November 7th and 9th. The Hawks cannot finish worse than a tie for first place in the final standings with Fairfield, but hold the tiebreaker because of their 4-0 road victory over the Stags on October 11th.

 

"I am very proud of my team for their effort tonight," stated head coach Krissy Turner. "To get another shutout is a terrific effort on the defensive side of the ball from everyone."

 

The match, which saw Monmouth outshoot Marist 11-3 remained scoreless until the 87th minute when Murphy launched a left-footed service into the far netting over a diving Andrea Wicks for the game-winner, Murphy's seventh of the season. The deciding tally was the second on the season for the sophomore and the fourth of her career.

 

Monmouth, which now has 10 shutouts on the year, forced Wicks to make a pair of saves, while Nicole D'Agostino (Clarendon Hills, Ill./Hinsdale Central/Pitt) made one stop for the Blue & White to register her eighth individual clean sheet on the season.

 

Monmouth finishes out its regular season on Wednesday, when the Hawks travel to in-state rival Rider University for a match on Cohen Field at 7:00 p.m.

 

@MUWSoccer -- #FlyHawks