Wildcats Travel to Albany for Sunday Matchup (2 P.M.)

Sunday, October 14

Albany, N.Y.

2 PM

University of New Hampshire

Albany

(Photo by Matthew Troisi)

Photo by: Matthew Troisi

10/13/2018 12:00:00 PM | Women's Soccer

UNH looks to move up in America East standings.

New Hampshire (6-6-1, 2-2-1 AE) vs Albany (8-6-2, 2-2-1 AE)
Sunday, October 14 • Tom & Mary Casey Stadium - Albany, N.Y. • 2 P.M.
WATCH | LIVE STATS

DURHAM, N.H. – The University of New Hampshire women's soccer team travels to Albany on Sunday to face the Great Danes as the America East regular season is coming to a close next week.

The Wildcats and the Great Danes are tied at seven conference points, with the winner of this game climbing closer to a first-round home game.

The Series with Albany
• UNH leads the all-time series with Vermont, 11-7-1.
• In the last five meetings, Albany holds a slight edge, 3-2-0; their three wins include an overtime victory and a postseason victory.
• In their last meeting, the Wildcats took down the Great Danes 3-0 at home.

UNH	Team Stat Comparison	UA
1.00	Goals Per Game	2.06
1.43	Goals Allowed Per Game	1.62
13.7	Shots Per Game	13.7
3.43	Corners Per Game	5.56

Last Time Out
• The Wildcats began this week of conference play coming off a big 1-0 victory over Stony Brook. UNH hosted the Vermont Catamounts Thursday evening, but fell 2-0.
• New Hampshire controlled momentum through the early parts of the game, but Vermont free-kick goal in the second half swung it in the Catamount's favor and they never looked back.
• The Wildcats outshot the Catamounts overall but Vermont held a commanding lead in shots on target, 7-3.
• Mia Neas (Old Saybrook, Conn.) showed strong positioning despite allowing two goals; one such save she just just wide of the post with her fingertips, keeping the game 0-0 early in the first. Of the others, she set up right where the shot was going, and effortlessly made the saves.

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.
• Halfway through the second-to-last week of conference play, the 'Cats sat at seven points with an even 2-2-1 conference record after the 2-0 loss to Vermont.

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 6-6-2 record on the 2018 season with a conference-leading .787 save percentage and a fourth-best 1.30 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 Albany:
• The Great Danes (Albany, N.Y.) come into Sunday with an 8-6-2 overall record, tied with the Wildcats in conference record and points at 2-2-1 (7 points).
• Albany holds an impressive 4-1-1 home record this season. Their last America East home matchup was a 4-1 victory over Vermont.
• The Great Danes are coming off a 2-1 loss to conference-best Hartford on the road.
• Albany is led by Mariah Williams with a team-high 12 goals and 26 points, followed by Meghan Cavanaugh with five goals and 13 points.
• In 15 of their 16 games, the Great Danes have looked to Andrea Leitner in net. She holds a season record of 8-5-2 with two shut outs, a .676 save% and a 1.51 GAA.

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.