The Monroe Mustangs women’s soccer team is treading where they have never gone before. On the strength of Mikaela Howell’s second-half goal, Monroe defeated top-ranked Ocean County College (Toms River, NJ), 1-0 to advance to the NJCAA Division III Women’s National Championship game Sunday at 2:00 p.m. vs. (#4) Montgomery-Rockville(MD), the winner of the other semi-final.
“I’m bursting with pride because coming up here as the seventh-ranked team, not a lot of people thought we could do this. But we always believed we could. And while Mikaela has been a true superstar, the fact is, this is a team game and we all are playing at our best,” said Coach Brett Polow.
Howell’s lone unassisted goal, coming in the 60th-minute of the game, was all Monroe needed, once again getting superlative keeper play from Cynthia Cauallaro.
Polow added, “We have without a doubt the best back four in the nation that’s why these offensive juggernauts have not been able to score on us. Also, Cynthia has been amazing in goal.”
Howell has scored all of Monroe’s goals in the national tournament. Recently, they defeated #2-ranked Finger Lakes CC, 3-1, handing them their first loss of the season and she had all three goals.
Sunday’s championship game will be televised by the NJCAA at this link: www.ihigh.com/njcaatv/.
Monroe is now 14-0-1 on the season.
