Madie Gibson was named the Most Outstanding Player of the MAAC tournament. (Photo courtesy of Monmouth SID)

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – The Monmouth University women, the 2018 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular season and tournament Champions, will play 11th-ranked University of Virginia in the NCAA Division I Tournament first round at Klöckner Stadium in Charlottesville, Va. Friday at 7 p.m.

The Hawks, winners of 11 straight games, won their third consecutive MAAC Championship with a 7-1 win over Siena College Sunday evening. Madie Gibson was named the MAAC Championship Most Outstanding Player, while Dana Scheriff, Lexie Palladino and Jesi Rossman were selected to the All-Championship team.

Monmouth returns to the NCAA Tournament for the third year in a row. The Hawks played at Princeton University in 2017 and met Virginia in 2016, when the program scored its first NCAA Tournament goal. In 2013, Monmouth played at Penn State in 2013 (3-0 loss) and 2007 (4-0 loss) and at Maryland in 2009 (4-0 loss).

Virginia (15-4-0, 7-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) earned an at-large bid to the tournament after losing its semifinal match of the ACC Championships to Florida State, 3-1, on Nov. 2. The Cavaliers are led offensively by Third Team All-ACC selection Alexa Spaanstra, who totaled 20 points during her freshman season. Spaanstra was named to the ACC All-Tournament Team after registering a goal and an assist in the Cavaliers’ win over the University of Louisville in the ACC quarterfinals.

The game will be the second meeting all-time between the two teams after UVA defeated Monmouth, 4-1, in the 2016 NCAA Tournament. The winner of the game will move on to play the winner of Texas Tech-Princeton encounter.

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.