SIGNATURE WIN: October 17, late in the conference schedule, a win or a loss would be the difference between playing at home or hitting the road for the first round of the USA South Conference tournament. Hosting N.C. Wesleyan, each team understood the ramifications of the game as the defenses were playoff-level tight. Regulation saw a combined total of  16 shots, eight of which were on goal, seven of those from the host Monarchs. After a great performance and nine saves by the Battling Bishops' Alicia Jacobs between the pipes, Methodist's Miranda Gay finally managed to get the ball in the back of the net. The scoring opportunity came when Capri Clark sliced through defenders and put a shot on goal that Jacobs initially saved but allowed the rebound to go astray, and to Gay with an open goal. Fifteen games into the season, Gay earned her first goal of the season to put the Monarchs in the driver seat for the No. 3 seed in the division.

SEASON NOTES: A year after being crowned USA South tournament champions, the Monarchs bowed out in the quarterfinals of the 2018 USA South Conference tournament with a 2-0 loss to host and eventual league tournament champion Piedmont College … Closing the schedule with a 3-1-1 stretch helped ensure Bryan Madej's sixth winning season at Methodist … Haley Bowles fed the Monarch attack with a team-high five assists. Bowles and Sierra Swasey were second on the team with four goals each while Capri Clark led the team in scoring with six goals, despite playing in only nine games … Seven different players earned game-winning goals but Clark led the team with two … Maggie Hunt earned one solo and five combined shutouts en route to an 8-7 goalie record. In a game against ranked Christopher Newport, the sophomore set her career mark for saves in a single game with 12. Hunt finished the season with 63 saves against 25 goals allowed.

POST-SEASON AWARDS:

• USA South Athletic Conference All-East Division: Capri Clark (first team); Haley Bowles, Haley Jones (second team)
• USA South All-Sportsmanship Team: Catie Gaughan

LOOKING AHEAD: Madej will lose six seniors and their 35 starts in 2018 to graduation -- Catie Gaughan, Danielle Gaughan, Miranda Cowardin, Sierra Garcia, Angelica Santos, and leading scorer Capri Clark. Those 35 starts leave a large hole to fill as only one of four freshmen on the roster appeared in more than six games for the season. While contribution from the freshmen was light, Madej got a lot of production in the form of 65 starts from the seven sophomores he has on his roster. Four sophomores appeared in all 16 games and two appeared in 15 games. Expect an even bigger leap in production from forwards Alexa Smith and Gillian Niesel next season while Haley Bowles and Haley Jones build on their junior year, all-conference nods.