New Hampshire takes on Albany in the America East Quarterfinals

Thursday, October 25

Albany, NY

7 PM

University of New Hampshire

University at Albany

Tickets

Megan Rumbold (Photo by Matthew Troisi)

Photo by: Matthew Troisi

New Hampshire takes on Albany in the America East Quarterfinals

10/24/2018 10:37:00 AM | Women's Soccer

Wildcats ready for their fifth straight playoff appearance.

New Hampshire (7-8-2, 3-4-1 AE) at Albany (11-6-2, 5-2-1 AE)
Thursday, October 25 • Tom & Mary Casey Stadium – Albany, N.Y. • 7 p.m.
WATCH | LIVE STATS

DURHAM, N.H – The University of New Hampshire women's soccer team heads to Albany for the America East Quarterfinals on Thursday evening. The Wildcats face off with the Great Danes for the third time ever in the post season.

The Series with Albany
• UNH leads the all-time series with Albany, 11-8-1.
• In the last five meetings, Albany holds a slight edge, 3-2-0; their three wins include an overtime victory and a postseason victory.
• Their last two matchups were both Senior Day victories for the home team. (10/01/17 UNH 3-0, 10/14/18 Albany 3-0.)
• The 'Cats and the Great Danes have met twice in the America East playoffs; Albany took both matchups at home, winning 2-1 in the 2010 quarterfinals and 1-0 in the 2016 semifinals.

UNH	Team Stat Comparison	Albany
0.94	Goals Per Game	2.22
1.53	Goals Allowed Per Game	1.44
13.0	Shots Per Game	14.7
3.41	Corners Per Game	5.5

Last Time Out
• The Wildcats went 1-1-0 in their final week of conference play.
• On Thursday evening, they came from behind to beat Binghamton on the road to lock in the final America East playoff spot. Goals came in the 87th minute by Kaylan Williams (Marion, Ind.) to tie it, and in the 92nd minute by Ally Reynolds (Weymouth, Mass.) to lift the Wildcats to victory.
• The regular season finale saw the Hartford Hawks visit Wildcat Stadium on a dangerously windy Sunday afternoon. The Hawks tallied two goals in the first half, and despite a strong counter-attack in the second, the Wildcats were blanked to end the regular season.

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, who now leads the teams with four 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 went 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.
• In the second-to-last week of conference play, the Wildcats looked to ride the big home win over Stony Brook but stumbled with a 0-2-0 record, facing Vermont at home and Albany on the road.
• The 'Cats closed out the regular season with a thrilling overtime win against Binhamton on the road, coming from behind in the 87th minute and winning in overtime. They fell to conference-leading Hartford in the regular season finale.

Players to Watch
• The Wildcats returned 19 players with six incoming freshmen and one junior transfer for a total of 26 players on the 2018 roster.
• Graduate student Mia Neas (Old Saybrook, Conn.) has seen action in all 17 games for the Wildcats as the starter. She holds a 7-8-2 record, and has made 90 saves on the season for the second-highest save percentage in the conference (.783). She has allowed 25 goals this season for a 1.43 GAA.
• Caitlyn Keenan (Bow, N.H.) who has tallied one goal on the season, serves as a team captain with Mia Neas. 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 eight points on three goals and two assists. Williams scored the game-tying goal in the 87th minute at Binghamton.
• Junior Liz Lane tallied her first three goals of the season starting against Sacred Heart; all three of her goals were 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.
• 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. , Borea nothced her first career goal in the season opener. While Picicci had tallied one goal and an assist on the season before being sidelined with an injury late in the season.

Scouting Albany:
• The Great Danes (Albany, N.Y.) enter the post season as the #3 seed, with a 11-6-2 overall record.
• In conference, Albany went 5-2-1, going on a three-game winning streak to close out the year. In that streak, they took down New Hampshire 3-0 and UMBC 4-0 at home, then closing out the year at Binghamton with a 1-0 victory.
• At home this season, Albany boasts a 6-1-1 record, their only loss coming to Buffalo back in September (2-0).
• The Great Danes are led by Mariah Williams, who has tallied 15 goals and two assists on the year for 32 points. Three other Great Danes also have over 10 points this season; Meghan Cavanaugh has seven goals and three assists for a second-best 17 points, while Caroline Kopp leads the team with 12 assists, adding in two goals for 16 points, and Claire Stackel rounds out the group with four goals and three assists, totalling 11 points.
• In net, Albany has looked to Andrea Leitner in net for 18 of its 19 starts. Leitner has stopped 56 shots this season for a .709 save% and allowed 23 goals for a 1.26 GAA. Her record coming into the playoffs is 11-5-2.

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 15 games of the 2018 season, the Wildcats hold a 4-2-2 road record, including going 3-0-1 in non-conference play.

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.

Don't Count Them Out
After allowing a goal in the first 10 minutes against Binghamton, the Wildcats came back and tallied goals late in the second half and in the first two minutes of overtime. It was the Wildcats' first win of the season when they trailed at half, and just their second victory of the year when their opponent tallied the first goal of the game.

In overtime, the Wildcats have a 4-1-2 record. Game-winners have come from Ally Reynolds in the 92nd, 100th, 101st minutes, and Liz Lane in the 93rd. Ties came at Northeastern and at UMass Lowell, and the one loss came to Dartmouth.