Cambridge, Mass. - November 9, 2014 - The Springfield College women's soccer program won its third-straight New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championship with a 2-1 victory over Wheaton College on Sunday afternoon on Roberts Field on the campus of MIT.

With the win, Springfield improves to 13-3-4 and has received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division-III Championship Tournament.  The Pride will find out who and where they will play in the national tournament during the NCAA selection show which will air on NCAA.com at 1:00 pm on Monday.

Today's win marked the sixth NEWMAC Championship in program history, including the fifth in the last seven years.  Springfield is now unbeaten through its last 12 games and has not lost since October 1.

For her efforts throughout the weekend, sophomore defender Elizabeth Monsen (Wayne, N.J.) was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament after registering the game-winning goal on Saturday against Babson, before notching her second goal of the season to give the Pride an early 1-0 cushion.

Just 1:52 into the contest, a Wheaton foul well outside its own box set up Monsen for a free-kick, which the sophomore defender launched into the air and floated into the back of the cage over the hands of Hinton for the game's first goal, giving the Pride a 1-0 edge.

Just 3:28 later, junior forward Krissy Cicalis (Bridgewater, Mass.) hit a ball towards cage that classmate Nicole Fowler (Maynard, Mass.) caught up to and fired into the legs of Hinton. After the ball deflected off Hinton and continued to roll towards the net, junior forward Jessica Miller (Southbury, Conn.) out-muscled her defender and got to the ball first, tapping it into the back of the net to extend the Pride's lead to two.

At the 20:00 minute mark, a Springfield foul set up a Wheaton free-kick from the midline. After Julie Beyar (South Hempstead, N.Y.) serviced the ball into the Springfield box, Brooke Collard (Orange, Calif.) headed the ball off the crossbar and into the back of the net to cut the Lyons' deficit to one.

Miller's goal would hold up after a scoreless second half as the Pride retained the league's trophy.

Springfield, which led 2-1 at the break, saw their best chance to grow their lead early in the second half when Miller chased a feed from freshman midfielder Dakota Kelly (Bethany, Conn.) into the Lyons' box at 48:57 on the far side that was stopped by a diving Hinton. Wheaton also had plenty of opportunities to even the score off corner kicks from junior Julia Cipriano (Middlebury, Conn.) – three to be exact – but Springfield's backline denied chances, including a header on the far post by senior Lauren Corigliano (Roselle Park, N.J.) at 62:09.

The Pride finished the match with 14 shots, including nine in the second stanza, while the Lyons recorded 17 shots – 10 in the first half. Wheaton held an advantage in corners, five to two. Senior goalkeeperLucy Gillett (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) made six saves in the win between the pipes for Springfield.  Hinton was credited with six stops for the Lyons.