Fall Sports Summary

SCOTSPORTS

FALL SPORTS SUMMARY

WOMEN’S AND MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY

Jessica Salinas ’19

Eight Fighting Scots earned All-Midwest Conference honors with top-20 finishes as the women placed second at the league meet and the men took fourth.

Coach Jon Welty’s women equaled the program record with five all-conference runners for the Scots’ highest finish since winning the league title in 2012.

Led by seniors Jessica Salinas and Natalia Bobak, all five of the women were first-time all-conference runners. Salinas shaved nearly two minutes off her season best to place seventh in 23:28 on the 6K course. Bobak also ran a season-best time, clocking 23:42 to finish 10th, two places in front of sophomore Julia Sterr’s 23:54. Freshmen Arika Hofmann and Caroline Young rounded out the quintet, placing 16th and 17th, respectively.

On the men’s side, Tate Heiple earned his second all-league honor in the 8K race after trimming a full minute off his season-best time. The senior placed 13th in 26:31.

Riley Dulin—who brought home the men’s Newcomer of the Year award as the top rookie runner at the championships—and another rookie, Cooper Hoffmann, followed Heiple to all-conference status. Dulin clocked 26:45 to place 16th, while Hoffman earned the final All- MWC spot in 27:07.

Junior Mike Bersell was awarded the men’s Elite 20 honor at the meet. The award recognizes the student-athlete competing at the championships with the highest GPA.

WOMEN’S GOLF

The Fighting Scots charged out of the gates with record performances in nearly every match before settling for a third-place finish at the Midwest Conference Championships.

At the rain-shortened meet, junior Haley Hoekstra earned her third straight All-MWC honor, placing eighth.

Hoekstra and sophomore Mamie Ambrosch fueled the early-season fireworks, and freshmen Morgan Bemis and Dani Freeman also made their mark, each posting season-low rounds of 80.

Team highlights included two rounds under the previous record of 332, including a 319 on the second day of a 36-hole meet hosted by Augustana, where Ambrosch fired back-to-back rounds in the 70s to set a new 36-hole record of 157. The Scots’ two-day team score there of 653 also set a new mark.

MEN’S AND WOMEN’S SOCCER

Duh Thang ’20

Both Fighting Scots teams showed the ability to play with the league’s elite but, in the end, they each narrowly missed the Midwest Conference playoffs.

The men finished league play 4-4-1 and were 7-7-1 overall. The tie was a 0-0 game against a Cornell College team that reached the postseason.

Other highlights included overtime victories against Iowa Wesleyan and Beloit in a six-day span. The golden goals were scored by juniors Duh Thang and

Lucas Sondgeroth, who are part of the solid nucleus of returners that coach Kooten Johnson will welcome back next fall.

One player who won’t be returning is senior Agustin Miranda, who led the Scots in his final season with five assists while earning his first All-MWC honor. Sondgeroth netted a team-high six goals, and the team received the MWC Sportsmanship Award.

The women were even closer to a playoff spot, finishing just a game shy of fourth-place Ripon, who the Scots defeated 3-1 on the final day of the regular season. Monmouth also posted a victory over another playoff team, St. Norbert, topping the Green Knights 3-2 on an OT goal by Kara-Jade Gordon.

Overall, the women finished 9-8. Next fall, they figure to return players who scored 52 of the team’s 56 goals, including Jacie Reis, who netted 17 goals, and Gordon, who had 14. Both junior forwards were named first team All-MWC.

WOMEN’S TENNIS

Doubles partners Rachel Leifheit and Natalie Curtis had the top performances for the Fighting Scots at the Midwest Conference Championships.

In doubles, they knocked off fourth-seeded St. Norbert before falling to the eventual champions in the semifinals. In singles, they both won a pair of matches to claim the No. 4 and No. 5 consolation bracket titles.

Overall, they were 8-6 as a doubles pairing, and Leifheit was the top singles player for the year, also posting an 8-6 mark.

As a team, the Scots won four MWC matches, which was good for a sixth-place finish.

VOLLEYBALL

The season ended too early for the 13-15 Fighting Scots, as a young squad was building momentum at the end.

Monmouth defeated Lake Forest and Knox down the stretch for its two Midwest Conference victories and battled playoff qualifier St. Norbert. In all, the Scots won four of their last five home matches.

Returning next year for the Scots will be two statistical leaders—junior setter Laura Dulee (549 assists, 35 aces) and sophomore libero Renee Rude (588 digs). Four Scots had at least 184 kills, and three of them will return—juniors Lauren Sperry and Ashley Farris and sophomore Riley Cook.

In a vote of the league’s coaches, coach Kari Shimmin’s team was honored with the MWC Sportsmanship Award.

MEN’S WATER POLO

A young Fighting Scots squad failed to win a match, but they were often right in their contests to the end, dropping four of them by four goals or less, including back-to-back one-goal heartbreakers.

For the second straight year, senior Jake Hall was named to the second team in a vote of the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference coaches. He finished his career ranked second on Monmouth’s alltime scoring list with 104 goals.