DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., November 16, 2021 – The journey back to the NJCAA Div. I Women's Soccer Championship finals began on Tuesday for the No. 8-seeded Monroe College Mustangs women's soccer team, who spread the wealth in a 5-0 victory over No. 12 Motlow State Community College in the Mustangs' first pool-play matchup of the tournament. The Mustangs start 1-0 at the tournament, while the Bucks fall to 0-2 after also dropping a 4-0 decision to No. 1 Tyler Junior College on Monday.
The Mustangs passed their first test of the week on Tuesday, defeating Motlow State to match Tyler's 1-0 record in Pool A. With both Monroe and Tyler now 1-0 in Pool A, Wednesday's matchup between the No. 1 and No. 8 seeds in the tournament will determine the winner of the pool and the team that will advance to Friday's semifinal round.
The scoring got started in the 17th minute when
Luana Grabias made the play of the tournament so far. She got the ball about 10 yards outside of the box and played it up the left wing, where she was one-on-one with a defender. Grabias played the ball through the defender's legs, then deked to the right of the next defender and fired into the top-left corner of the net for a fantastic goal that put Monroe up, 1-0.
The Mustangs potted one more right before the halftime break.
Karaline Gray made her first appearance in a number of weeks late in the half and immediately made an impact. She sent a high cross from the far-right wing right in front of the goal, finding the head of
Julia Howard, who bounced it past the keeper for a 44th-minute score, sending the game to the half with Monroe on top, 2-0.
After
Julia Howard got on the board in the first half, her sister,
Emma Howard, had to follow suit. In the 64th minute,
Emma Howard played the ball into the box, where she had her first shot blocked at point-blank. She stuck with it and took the ball back from a defender, and then snuck it past the keeper just inside the left post to make it a 3-0 lead for Monroe.
Monroe's lead grew again just three minutes later.
Sydoney Clarke faced off with two defenders from 30 yards out, juked past one, tapped the ball past the other, and then fired a bullet to the top-left corner of the net to expand the lead to four at 67'.
Monroe added one more score in the 74th minute.
Mayra de Lima sent a long free kick just left of the post where Motlow State's keeper stopped it, but left it for
Erin Keyt, who fired right into the open for the Mustangs' fifth score of the day.
Goalkeeper
Stefane Rosa was mostly untested on Tuesday, as the Mustang back line held the Bucks to just four shot attempts. Still, she stopped the only two shots on goal, earning her seventh shutout of the season to improve to 9-0-2 on the year. Motlow State keeper Hayli Meeks stopped four shots, but yielded all five Monroe goals to take the loss.
The Mustangs fired off 18 shots in the win, with Grabias leading the pack with five of them. Clarke took four chances, with each of them putting three shots on goal apiece. Monroe had all six of the game's corner kicks as well.
The Mustangs will take on top-ranked Tyler on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. Tyler entered the tournament as the two-time defending NJCAA Champion. Monroe and Tyler faced off in both the 2018 and 2019 championships finals. Monroe came out on top back in 2018, but Tyler won the title in 2019. Tyler has also reached the finals in each of the past five seasons. Monroe and Tyler last played in pool-play round back in 2015, when No. 7 seed Monroe defeated No. 2 Tyler to advance.
ABOUT THE ATHLETIC PROGRAM AT MONROE COLLEGE
The athletic program at Monroe College encompasses a total of 39 teams competing across nine sports. There are 21 varsity and junior varsity programs, as well as club men's and women's rugby, the Monroe College marching band, and the newly added esports and men's volleyball programs, competing on the New Rochelle campus as the Mustangs (NJCAA Division I). The Monroe Express, based out of the Bronx campus, has 18 teams competing at the NJCAA Division III level.
For more information about the Monroe Mustangs, please visit us at
www.MonroeCollegeMustangs.com or follow us on social media: Facebook (
Monroe Mustangs Athletics), Twitter (
@Monroe_Mustangs) and Instagram (
@monroemustangs).
