POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – A 7-0 run in the first half proved decisive as Fairfield University Women's Lacrosse surged past Monmouth, 17-9, on Thursday afternoon to advance to the 2018 MAAC Championship Game. The third-seeded Stags will meet fourth-seeded Canisius for the conference crown on Saturday at 1 p.m.
 
With the win, Fairfield (12-6) advances to its conference-record ninth MAAC Championship Game. The Stags won the MAAC title in 2001, 2009 and 2015. Monmouth's season comes to an end as the MAAC's second-seeded team with a mark of 8-10.
 
"Today was the most balanced we've played all season," said Head Coach Laura Field. "We got big games across the board from goalkeeping to defensive stops to midfield play to clutch scoring."
 
Kathleen Hulseman led the scoring effort with four goals and two assists to tie her career high of six points. Taylor Mitchell also matched a career high with four goals and handed out an assist to set a new personal best with five points. Mitchell now leads the Stags with 37 goals this spring.
 
Kelly Horning netted a hat trick and distributed one assist for her second career three-goal day, and Brooke Gallagher are contributed a trio of scores. Brenna Connolly, Olivia Russell and Lily Crager each added one goal to round out Fairfield's 17 markers. After Horning's hat trick, the Fairfield attack boasts six 20-goal scorers for the second consecutive season after not accomplishing that feat in a campaign since 2010.
 
Coupled with Saturday's 14-5 First Round win over Iona, the Stags' 31 total goals are the most scored in back-to-back MAAC postseason contests since hanging a combined 39 on Manhattan and Marist en route to the 2009 conference crown.
 
Connolly's goal today gives the First Team All-MAAC attacker just the seventh 70-point season in Fairfield Women's Lacrosse history.
 
Rounding out the offense, Hulseman's doled out two assists with one apiece coming from Mitchell, Horning, Megan Beach and Mary Smyth. Beach's helper was the first career point for the First Team All-MAAC defender.
 
On the defensive end, Paulina DiFatta followed up her 16-save outing against Iona with 14 stops today. She also vacated the crease to pick up three ground balls. In front of her, Hulseman and Erin Bauman each registered three caused turnovers. In addition to her first career point, Beach picked up four ground balls with a caused turnover on the defensive end. The Stags limited Monmouth's First Team All-MAAC midfielder Caroline Corbliss and Second Team attacker Nicole Ceraso to no goals and one assist between them.
 
The action in the midfield saw Erin Mammele – A Second Team All-MAAC defender – collect seven draw controls with Crager hauling in five as the Stags edged the Hawks, 15-13, on the draw.
 
Monmouth was led by four goals from Chloe Novak. Riley Brager went the distance in the cage and made seven saves.
 
After Hulseman started the scoring with her 28th goal of the season, Monmouth ran off back-to-back markers to take a 2-1 edge. However, that would mark the Hawks' only lead of the period as the Stags then embarked on a 9-1 run over the next 23:51, including a 7-0 stretch that saw Monmouth kept off the board by DiFatta and the defense for a span of 14:34. The Hawks would net the final goal of the period, but drew no closer as DiFatta's save on a free-position shot in the final minute sent the Stags into the locker room with a 10-4 advantage.
 
The second half saw more back-and-forth action as the Stags maintained their six goal advantage at 12-6 with 20:23 to go. A three-goal run with tallies from Hulseman, Horning and Gallagher and a pair of late markers from Hulseman put the game out of reach and rounded out the 17-9 final.
 
Visit FairfieldStags.com and follow @StagsWomensLax on Twitter throughout the weekend for more information on Saturday's MAAC Championship Game.