Preseason MAAC honors for LCM grad

MADIE GIBSON

Lower Cape May Regional High School graduate Madie Gibson has been selected as the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference’s Preseason Player of the Year for women’s soccer.

Gibson, a redshirt sophomore for Monmouth University, helped the Hawks win the MAAC regular-season and postseason tournament titles last season by scoring 33 points through 12 goals and nine assists. She was named the conference’s Rookie of the Year for her efforts.

“Madie had a tremendous 2016 season and was one of the best players in the league,” Monmouth coach Krissy Turner said in a story on the Monmouth athletic website. “It will be more difficult for Madie this year as all of the teams are well aware of her talents, but I am confident she will rise to the challenge as she has a goal scorer’s mentality.”

Monmouth went 14-5-2 overall, 9-0-1 in MAAC regular-season play, in 2016. The team’s season ended with a loss to Virginia in the first round of the NCAA Tournament after Monmouth posted a 5-2 win over Quinnipiac in the MAAC Tournament championship match.

Monmouth began the 2017 season last weekend, playing to a 0-0 draw at Lehigh on Friday before a 4-1 loss at No. 21 Rutgers on Sunday.

Gibson was the Schoppy Award winner as the Cape-Atlantic League’s top female athlete as a senior at Lower Cape May in 2015. She is Cape May County’s all-time leading scorer for girls soccer with 126 goals, scoring 41 of them as a senior. She helped the Lady Tigers win two straight CAL National Conference titles in 2014-15.

Gibson also was a basketball standout, finishing with 1,090 career points. She averaged 13.8 points and 8.1 rebounds per game as a senior to help Lower Cape May win its first South Jersey Group II championship.