The Canisius women's lacrosse team clinched the regular season title this afternoon, as the team defeated MAAC foe Monmouth, 13-10, on the road. The Griffs clinched the regular season title for just the second time in program history.
After defeating the Hawks, the Griffs now hold an 11-5 record and a perfect 8-0 record in conference play, while the loss drops the Hawks to 10-5 and 5-2 in the MAAC.
"Today was a fantastic win for the program, we played lights out from Kayla Scully all the way up to our attackers," said head coach Scott Teeter. "It was a great team effort and a great team win and we are excited to host another MAAC Championship in a few weeks!"
The victory gives the Griffs the number one seed in the MAAC Championships and will allow the Golden Griffins to host the semifinal and finals at the Demske Sports Complex on May 1st and May 3rd.
Canisius was led by junior Taylor Giglio who led the team with six points (3 goals, 3 assists) and senior's Tori Quinn and Meghan Cuddy who each found the back of the goal three times as well. The other Griff to score multiple goals in the game was six-time MAAC Rookie of the Week Erica Evans who had two goals and an assist.
Overall the game was a tough fought battle on each side as the team's went back and forth for the first 11 minutes of action. The score would sit at 4-4 with 19:08 left on the clock and this is where the Canisius squad would make a run. The Griffs rattled off four straight goals from the 17:07 mark to the 13:15 mark to take an 8-4 lead.
Monmouth would counter the Griffs goals with one from Claudia LaMarca at the 7:18 mark but Tori Quinn and Allie Stewart scored two more before the half to give the team a 10-6 lead heading into the locker room.
The second half would see a little less scoring from each team, but the Hawks scored three of the second halfs first four goals to cut the Griffs lead down to 11-9 with 19:32 left in regulation. Canisius would counter as the senior Quinn buried a free position shot to take the three point lead.
The Hawks would get it within two goals again as Allison Stathius scored an unassisted goal with 13:53 on the clock, but junior Taylor Giglio scored her third of the game with 8:20 left to seal the victory for the Blue and Gold.
As a team, the Griffs were out-shot by the Hawks 27-25 but led the home team in ground balls, 18-17 and draw controls, 16-9.
The next game for the Blue and Gold will be an out of conference matchup as the team travels to Binghamton, N.Y. on April 22 to take on the Bearcats at 4:00 p.m.
Game Notes: The victory for Kayla Scully in net was her 38th of her Canisius career, tying her for first all-time in program history...this was only the second time in program history that the Griffs clinched the regular season title...junior Ashley Bull recorded seven of the Griffs 16 draw controls, moving closer to the all-time Canisius record....the 10th straight victory for the Griffs is a new Canisius record, breaking the previous record of nine wins in a row...head coach Scott Teeter is now 8-0 as a father.
