Leonard, Neyland Lift UNH to 14-13 Overtime Win vs. UMBC

Saturday, March 20

Durham, N.H.

11 AM

University of New Hampshire

2-3, 1-2AE

UMBC

2-3, 1-2AE

UMBC

New Hampshire

Photo by: Vincent Dejana

3/20/2021 4:03:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score

DURHAM, N.H. – Senior Julia Neyland (Boxborough, Mass.) scored six goals, including the 50^th of her career, and junior goalkeeper Issy Torres (Elmhurst, Ill.) had 13 saves to lead the University of New Hampshire women's lacrosse team to Saturday afternoon's 14-13 overtime victory against University of Maryland Baltimore County at Wildcat Stadium.

Graduate student Rylee Leonard (Coventry, R.I.), senior Elizabeth Blanding (Pittsford, N.Y.) and sophomore Liv Dunn (Newbury, Mass.) all had two points each with Leonard scoring two goals, including the game-winning tally 4:57 into OT. Both Blanding and Dunn tallied a goal and an assist.

Rylee_Leonard_goal_032021_9153

Senior Sabrina Grovom (San Marcos, Calif.), juniors Delaney Pratt (Lafayette, Colo.) and Abby Cranney (Amherst, N.H.), freshman Olivia O'Connor (Hopkinton, Mass.) all added to the scoring with one goal each.

UMBC's Claire Bockstie and Courtney Renehan contributed six points and five points, respectively, with Bockstie scoring six goals for the Retrievers. Goalkeeper Lexi Roberts had nine saves, including one in the extra session.

UNH improves to 2-3 on the season and 1-2 in America East, and will be back in action March 27 as the Wildcats take on UMass Lowell in Lowell at Cushing Field Complex. UMBC is also 2-3, 1-2.

WATCH VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
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FIRST HALF

UNH opened with six straight goals within the first 10 minutes of the game.
Grovom caught a pass from Dunn and started the scoring with a goal in front of the net at 28:34.
Pratt extended the lead to 2-0 with a free-position goal at 27:37, and just over a minute later at 26:29 Cranney finished a pass from Blanding to make it 3-0 Wildcats.
UNH expanded its lead to 6-0 with three goals in as many minutes, including two goals from Neyland (at 23:46 and 20:30) sandwiched around one from Blanding (21:30).
UMBC answered back with four goals in just under nine minutes, including three straight from Bockstie and one from Megan Halczuk, to close within 6-4.
UMBC made it five consecutive goals to shorten the lead to 6-5 with a goal from Dymin Gerow at 5:34.
UNH extended its lead to 7-5 when Neyland scored her third goal of the game on a free position at 4:38.
Torres finished the first half with six saves on 11 shots on goal.

SECOND HALF

UMBC opened the second half with Bockstie scoring her fourth goal of the game at 29:10, which cut the Wildcats lead to one.
Roberts and then Torres kept the score at 7-6 with a free-position shot save one minute apart.
Leonard scored her first goal of the game at 23:48 to extend UNH's lead to 8-6.
UMBC answered back to make it 8-7 with Gerow scoring her second goal of the game at 20:47.
Torres denied Bockstie at 20:47 and then UNH went up 9-7 at 18:24 when O'Connor scored her first goal of the game by finishing home a pass from Blanding.
UNH's Neyland scored her fourth goal of the game at 16:48, expanding the Wildcats' lead to 10-7.
The Wildcats scored their third straight goal in five minutes and added to their lead as Dunn scored her first of the game at 15:42 to put UNH up 11-7.
UMBC stopped UNH's momentum with a free-position goal from Olivia Docal at 13:29.
Neyland added to her scoring with her fifth of the game at 13:05 when she stole the ball from UMBC's goalie and scored into an empty net.
The Retrievers answered back quickly with a goal of their own at 12:47, cutting UNH's lead to 12-9.
That goal sparked a 5-0 run that gave UMBC its first lead of the game, 13-12.
UMBC answered again with a goal from Courtney Renahan at 10:02 to shorten UNH's lead to 12-10.
Torres kept the advantage at two goals with a big save against Lily Kennedy at 8:04.
UMBC cut UNH's lead down to one with Bockstie's sixth of the game at 5:45.
Two minutes later, UMBC tied it up at 12 with a goal from Gerow at 3:40, and 29 seconds. later UMBC took its first lead of the game as Docal scored her second of the game at 3:11.
Following a UNH timeout, Neyland curled from the right side and fought through a double team in the middle of the fan to score her sixth goal of the game and tie the game, 13-13, with 2:18 left in the half.
UMBC won the ensuing draw control, but Leonard forced a turnover and collected the ground ball.
The 'Cats called time out with 36 seconds on the clock, but lost possession with 12 seconds remaining.
The Retrievers advanced the ball downfield and Megan Halczuk's shot from 10 yards was stopped by Torres at the buzzer to send the game into overtime.

OVERTIME

UMBC had a two-player advantage for nearly two minutes at the start of overtime, but was unable to score. Junior Meghan Doyle (Pittsford, N.Y.) made a key stop when she intercepted a pass with 77 seconds elapsed from OT. Forty seconds later, UMBC was denied on a 2-on-1 breakaway as Torres came out to force a shot wide left.
Neither team recorded a shot before the clock hit 3:00, prompting a stoppage of play for the teams to switch ends of the field.
The Wildcats controlled the draw and Neyland fired a shot on goal that was stopped by Roberts with 1:34 remaining.
UNH retained possession, however, as the ball ricocheted off the top of Roberts' stick over the end line.
Leonard scored the game-winning goal on a free-position shot at 1:03 of overtime when she ripped a shot from the top-left into the bottom-right corner.

GAME NOTEBOOK

UNH lead 7-5 at halftime, and was only down in the game once (13-12).
New Hampshire held the lead for a total of 54 minutes, 54 seconds. UMBC led for 53 seconds.
UMBC led in shots with a 31-30 margin.
UMBC also recorded the edge in ground balls (19-17)) and draw controls (17-13).
UNH committed four fewer turnovers (14-18).
The Wildcats scored on 4 of 5 free-position shots; UMBC was 2-for-4.
UNH was successful on 20 of 21 clear attempts; the Retrievers were 18-for-19.

UNH NOTEBOOK

Neyland scored her 50^th career goal on her game-tying goal (pictured below). Her six goals and six points both marked career highs.

Blanding now has 50 career points with 37 goals and 13 assists.
Torres tallied a season high 13 saves, besting her previous mark of 11 saves that came against Vermont on March 13. The 13 saves are one less than her career high of 14 established against Harvard in February 2019.
Leonard finished with a career-high nine draw controls. It's the highest total by a Wildcat since March 2, 2016, when Devan Miller had 10.
Doyle recorded a personal-best five ground balls and was also credited with three caused turnovers.
New Hampshire improved to 2-0 at Wildcat Stadium this season.
UNH is 1-1 in overtime games this season; the 'Cats fell 13-12 at UAlbany on March 6. New Hampshire's previous overtime win was April 2, 206 at Binghamton (9-8).

SERIES NOTEBOOK

UNH has a 15-4 lifetime record against UMBC and has won each of the last three meetings.
UMBC won three consecutive games spanning 2015-17 and UNH won the previous three matchups from 2012-14.
The Wildcats have a 7-4 edge the past 11 meetings; that includes 4-2 at home.
Prior to last year's COVID-abbreviated season, UNH and UMBC met annually from 2004-19. (since the Retrievers joined America East in the 2003-04 academic year).

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