The Hofstra University women’s soccer team defeated the Monmouth University Hawks 2-0 on Thursday, Oct. 20, to keep their spot at No. 1 in the Coastal Athletic Association. The Pride improved to 12-3-1 overall and 9-1-1 in conference play with one game left in the regular season.

Sophomore midfielder Millie Davies kicked off the scoring for the Pride. She dribbled through the midfield until she found herself with plenty of space a couple of yards from the top of Monmouth’s 18-yard box. With an unstoppable shot, she put the ball into the right side of the net out of the reach of goalkeeper Cassandra Coster. This marked Davies’s third goal of the season.

The second goal was a team effort by junior forward Mathilde Braithwaite and sophomore forwards Thorhildur Thorhallsdottir and Wiktoria Fronc. While on the counterattack, Fronc found Braithwaite out wide before dribbling up the right flank and sending a perfectly timed low cross to the feet of Thorhallsdottir, who had just entered the box. Thorhallsdottir used her momentum to take a powerful touch past Coster, who was attempting to make the shot a one versus one before she took an easy right-footed shot toward the open net for the second goal. This marked Thorhallsdottir’s third goal of the season and Braithwaite’s fourth and Fronc’s sixth assist of the season.

The Hawks put a lot of pressure on the Pride in the second half as they recorded eight shots. Graduate student goalkeeper Skylar Kuzmich made a crucial penalty save with just under four minutes remaining to keep her shutout. Midfielder Maddison Perna stepped up to take the kick for the Hawks, with Kuzmich immediately moving to the left and diving to save the shot.

The Pride finished with 11 total shots on the net with six on goal, and Monmouth finished with nine total shots and four on goal.

Kuzmich and Coster both ended the evening with four total saves.

The match concluded with three yellow cards: freshman midfielder Chloe Messer picked up the lone card for the Hawks in the 51st minute while Thorhallsdottir and sophomore midfielder Aimee Hodgson picked up a yellow for the Pride in the 66th and 70th minutes, respectively.

Monmouth had three corner kicks compared to Hofstra’s one.

The Pride return to play on Sunday, Oct. 22, to face Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland, for their final regular season matchup. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.

 Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics/Alexis Friedman