Wildcats Host Catamounts Thursday (7 P.M.)

Thursday, October 11

Durham, N.H.

7 PM

University of New Hampshire

Vermont

(Photo by Helene Bartsch)

Photo by: Helene Bartsch

10/10/2018 1:21:00 PM | Women's Soccer

New Hampshire looks to make it three in a row at home.

New Hampshire (6-5-1, 2-1-1 AE) vs Vermont (4-7-3, 2-2-1 AE)
Thursday, October 11 • Bremner Field – Durham, N.H. • 7 p.m.
WATCH | LIVE STATS

DURHAM, N.H. – The University of New Hampshire women's soccer team, coming off a 1-0 victory over Stony Brook, sit at 2-1-1 in conference play and are looking to repeat that effort against the visiting Vermont Catamounts on Thursday evening.

The contest will be the teams' last home contest until the season finale on Sunday, October 21 against Hartford. With just four games remaining in the season, an

The Series with Vermont
• A series dating back all the way to the 1980s, UNH and Vermont have met 35 times in women's soccer.
• In the last five meetings, the Wildcats have a 3-0-2 advantage. Last season, New Hampshire defeated Vermont 2-0 in a road game.
• Of their 35 meetings, 10 match ups have gone to overtime.

UNH	Team Stat Comparison	UVM
1.08	Goals Per Game	0.84
1.38	Goals Allowed Per Game	1.36
13.6	Shots Per Game	10.4
3.54	Corners Per Game	3.07

Last Time Out
• The Wildcats tallied four conference points in the previous week with a tie
• New Hampshire faced UMass Lowell on Thursday evening, and played to a 0-0 double overtime draw. Mia Neas (Old Saybrook, Conn.) made seven saves, her second-highest saves in a game this season, in her third shut out of the season. The Wildcats were barely outshot by the River Hawks in shots on goal, 7-6.
• The following Sunday the Wildcats hosted the Stony Brook Seawolves for the first time since their semi-final match up last season. The Wildcats held the Seawolves to just four shots on goal and Liz Lane (Porter, Maine) tallied her third straight game-winning goal as the Wildcats picked up their second conference victory.

The State of New Hampshire
• New Hampshire was ranked the number one team in the America East in their annual preseason poll that was released on August 6th.
• The Wildcats opened up the season with back-to-back overtime wins, the first in program history; UNH started 2-0-0 to start the season for the second straight year (went 11-6-1 in 2017).
• Both game-winners were scored by junior transfer Ally Reynolds (Weymouth, Mass.), who now leads the teams with three goals on the season.
• Also in that first weekend, sophomore Casey Peterson (Clifton, Va.) tallied her first four career points, notching two assists and a goal against Rhode Island.
• In their next five games, New Hampshire had a 1-3-1 record; they dropped two games of their season-opening three-game homestand to #14 Princeton and UMass, after going undefeated in the regular season at home last year (7-0-1).
• The 'Cats then 1-1-1 in their next three, with a win over ASU, a loss to Arizona, and the draw with Northeastern.
• UNH ended non-conference play splitting the weekend 1-1-0 home against Dartmouth and at Sacred Heart. The 4-4-1 non-conference record is the second best in the Steve Welham era, the first best being last season's 6-3-0.
• New Hampshire opened up conference play with a 1-0 overtime victory over UMBC. The victory put the 'Cats to 2-3-0 at home and was their first win following a win since the start of the season. They fell at Maine (1-0) in their second conference game.
• The 'Cats tied with UMass Lowell (0-0) on the road before returning home to take down Stony Brook 1-0, putting their home record back to .500 with a 3-3-0 record.

Players to Watch
• The Wildcats return 19 players with six incoming freshmen and one junior transfer for a total of 26 players on the 2018 roster.
• Among those returners is reigning America East Goalkeeper of the Year Mia Neas who touted an 11-5-1 record in 2017 after seeing action in only three games prior to that season. Neas currently stands at a 6-5-2 record on the 2018 season with a conference-leading .793 save percentage and a third-best 1.25 GAA.
• Neas will serve as one of the two captains on the team this season, along with junior Caitlyn Keenan (Bow, N.H.) who has tallied one goal on the season. They are joined by two other representatives to serve as captains each game.
• The Wildcats also return All-Conference first-teamer Gaby Dorsey (Hubertus, Wisc.) who tallied 10 points on four goals and two assists last season, and All-Conference second-teamer Kaylan Williams (Marion, Ind.) who had five goals and an assist for 11 points last season. So far this season, Williams has six points on two goals and two assists.
• Junior Liz Lane tallied her first three goals of the season starting against Sacred Heart; her three goals are the last three goals the Wildcats have scored, and all have been game-winners. The latter two were assisted by Williams (vs. UMBC, vs. Stony Brook).
• The defensive core remains intact for the 'Cats, who return Keenan, Maddie Murdick (Burlington, Conn.) and Caroline Wysocki (Agawam, Mass.), whom each tallied an assist last season, while holding their opponents to just 0.94 goals per game.
• Also returning on the defense is junior Megan Rumbold (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) who has been a threat on free kicks the past two seasons. Rumbold has two career goals, both coming off long setpieces, and leads the team in shots on goal with 17. This season, she scored late to equalize against Northeastern, which ended up being the deciding goal in a 2-2 tie with the Huskies.
• All-Rookie team members Sofia Borea (Oakville, Ontario) and Francesca Picicci (North Massapequa, N.Y.) got a great start to their UNH careers in the 2017 season and look to fill the holes left by some graduating members. Borea tallied one assist in her rookie season, filling in at the midfield spot, while Picicci worked her way up to a starting role and tallied three goals and two assists in her freshman season. Picicci has tallied one goal and an assist so far this season, while Borea nothced her first career goal in the season opener.

Scouting Vermont:
• The Catamounts (Burlington, Vt.) come into the week off a conference win, improving their America East record to 2-2-1 (4-7-3 overall.)
• Vermont is currently tied with UNH in conference, both teams at seven points. UNH sits ahead of Vermont due to the higher win%.
• UVM is currently 2-2-1 in its previous five games with conference wins over Binghamton (1-0) and most recently UMBC (3-0) at home, while losses came at Stony Brook (4-0) and Albany (4-1). Vermont tied with first-place Hartford at home (1-1).
• Brooke Jenkins leads the catamounts with a team-high four goals and nine points. The Catamounts have two other players that have notched at least one goal, and have six total goal scorers so far this season.
• In 11 of their 14 contests, Vermont has started Kacey Lambertson in net; she holds a 2-6-2 season record, with a save% of .778 and GAA of 1.52. Another goalie seeing conference action this season is Lydia Kessel, who started the other six contests with a 2-1-1 record, .850 save% and 0.69 GAA. Her two wins came against Sienna and Binghamton.

New Hampshire vs. The Power Five
• New Hampshire women's soccer now has three wins against schools in a power-5 conference (Big 10, Big 12, SEC, ACC, Pac-12)
• The first two wins came in the 1980s, with a victory over ACC foes Duke (9/16/89, 3-2) and Maryland (10/16/88, 2-1 in OT).
• With their win over ASU on Friday, August 31, New Hampshire tallied it's third win over a power-five school in program history, and their first against the Pac-12.

Road Warriors
Last season the Wildcats had a road record of 4-5-0 in the 2017 season; through 12 games of the 2018 season, the Wildcats hold a 3-1-2 road record.

Score Early and Often
New Hampshire is 5-0-1 in games where they tally the first goal, and 3-0-1 when leading at halftime. The 'Cats are also 3-0-1 when scoring two or more goals in a game.